Information about diet, use of alcoholic beverages, and use of tobacco was obtained, together with other information in 1957-58 at the baseline examination of 2,107 middle-aged, employed men participating in the Western Electric Health Study. Participants were re-examined annually through 1969. Interim data on alcohol and tobacco were obtained at each examination, and interim information about diet was obtained in 1959 and 1960. Follow-up for vital status and morbidity from cancer was completed in 1978 with only 3 participants lost to follow-up, and a similar follow-up on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the initial examination is in progress. These data will be used to investigate prospectively the association between dietary variables (e.g., vitamins A and C, animal fat, animal protein, dietary cholesterol), consumption of alcoholic beverages (primarily beer and liquor), use of tobacco, and risk of malignant neoplasms. These data will help to determine whether dietary habits during middle-age affect risk of commonly occurring cancers in men (e.g., lung, colon, rectum, bladder) 10-25 years later -- i.e., over a period of time sufficiently long so it is reasonable to infer that the dietary habits preceded induction of the cancer. The reliability with which men in the seventh and eighth decades of life can recollect and report dietary habits, use of alcohol, and use of tobacco 25 years previously will also be investigated.
