paper says "Marital status associated with a higher incidence of AN for men..."

[annamaria]

Here is a new paper, that is somewhat obscure to interpret. I think it says that if you are "educated" you discover your AN earlier (by having better access to medical care?)

Annamaria

= = = = = =

Neuro Oncol. 2010 Nov 10. [Epub ahead of print]

Sociodemographic factors and vestibular schwannoma: a Danish nationwide cohort study.
Schüz J, Steding-Jessen M, Hansen S, Stangerup SE, Cayé-Thomasen P, Johansen C.

Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark (J.S., M.S.-J., C.J.); Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Gentofte, Hellerup, Denmark (S.H., S.-E.S., P.C.-T.); Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark (S.-E.S., P.C.-T.).

Abstract
Vestibular schwannoma (VS) (or acoustic neuroma) accounts for about 5%-6% of all intracranial tumors; little is known about the etiology. We investigated the association between various sociodemographic indicators and VS in a cohort of 3.26 million Danish residents, with 1087 cases identified in 35 308 974 person-years under risk, with data accrued from 1993 to 2006. Complete ascertainment of cases was ensured by using population-based and clinical cancer registries. Information on sociodemographic indicators was obtained on an annually updated individual level from Statistics Denmark. Log-linear Poisson regression models were used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Linear regression models were used to examine the association between sociodemographic indicators and tumor size.

We found that IRRs decreased gradually with decreasing level of education, with values of 0.62 (95% CI: 0.49-0.78) for men and 0.62 (95% CI: 0.50-0.77) for women with a basic education compared with a higher education. Similar results were found for disposable income.

Marital status was associated with a higher incidence of VS in men but not women; nonmarried men with a basic education had an IRR of 0.34 (95% CI: 0.23-0.50) compared with married men with a higher education. Lower incidence rates were also observed among unemployed or early-retirement pensioners, whereas there were no differences in incidence rates across the broad groups of occupations and across the types of districts. Sociodemographic indicators were not associated with the tumor size.

The magnitude of the differences in incidence rates across the groups of different socioeconomic indicators suggests a high potential for earlier diagnosis of VS by improving the awareness of early symptoms.

[Tod]

Educational attainment is usually highly correlated with jobs that provide access to better insurance and thus medical care. I tend to have explain that over and over again to policy makers who point to data showing higher educational attainment is correlated with better health.

Perhaps the higher incidence of tumors in married men explains why these men get married in the first place.

They have a deaf ear that allows them to be with a woman.   

-Tod (who is happily married and SSD)

[Lizard]

Nice Tod, but oh so true! 

[lori67]

I guess this explains why husbands don't listen...   But wait, I was the one with the AN - not my husband.  Hmmm....

Oh well, at least I can tell him that there's scientific proof that I'm smarter than he is! 

Lori

[Jim Scott]

Thanks, Annamaria ~

Although this a relatively obscure study from Denmark, there isn't that much AN-specific scientific date available so it's worth a look.

It's practically axiomatic that those with better educations would be more astute regarding their health.  However, in Denmark, the government provides the access to health care so that may not be directly analogous to the U.S. (yet). I would venture to guess that married men have wives that love them, care about them and would urge their otherwise recalcitrant husband to go to the doctor, especially when he showed unexplained symptoms.  That's how my AN was discovered.  I ignored the (increasing) symptoms and made excuses to myself for ignoring them until they became so pronounced that my wife noticed, became alarmed and almost demanded that I stop being stubborn and make an appointment with our PCP.  I did and, as they say, 'the rest is history'.  Frankly, had I been single, I might have blithely continued to ignore the AN symptoms until the tumor had grown so large as to do permanent damage.  Fortunately, I was married - with a caring wife who was able to cut through my indifference and lifelong avoidance of doctor's offices and hospitals to get me to do what I should have done sooner.  For that reason, I can understand why the study indicated that married men seem to have a better chance to have their AN discovered and, one assumes, medically addressed.

Jim

[Tod]

Leave it to Jim write a very sweet, well written response. I almost wish I had written something like that.

Almost.


Nicely said, Jim.

-Tod

[Crazycat]

"It's practically axiomatic that those with better educations would be more astute regarding their health"

Yeah, and especially in view of the fact that most folks with better educations have health insurance. 

In my case, I knew I was ill for at least five years before obtaining care and dreadfully ill for the last of those two years. I went on until I couldn't put one foot in front of the other before being diagnosed. In fact, I had spent so much time seeking information on-line and interviewing people, I had diagnosed myself! I knew that I either had M.S. or a brain tumor. For a while I was going around telling everyone that I had M.S. (God forbid!!)

Eventually I narrowed it down and came to the conclusion that I had a noncancerous tumor of the inner ear, an "Acoustic Neuroma";"noncancerous" because I had lived with whatever it was that had been plaguing me for so long that I would have been long gone if had been cancerous).

Mind you, I'm not necessarily complaining, that's just how it all played-out in my particular circumstance.

It turned out that I got the best care in one of the best hospitals in the world.

[Crazycat]

I was just trying to be funny with my previous reply only because I thought the premise of their argument was ridiculous.

I don't believe being afflicted with an Acoustic Neuroma brain tumor has anything to do with whether or not a person is married, educated or what their station in life is.
I'd been playing loud music in rock bands for thirty years and that wasn't even attributable to it.

In my case, if I had had the necessary coverage when I began feeling the first signs of this condition, I would have at least kept it from growing and getting as worse as it got ( i.e., brain compression, hydrocephalus, etc....).

[Jim Scott]

I don't believe being afflicted with an Acoustic Neuroma brain tumor has anything to do with whether or not a person is married, educated or what their station in life is.
I'd been playing loud music in rock bands for thirty years and that wasn't even attributable to it.

Paul ~

I agree that developing an acoustic neuroma isn't affected by age, education, marital status or your financial position.  That's been fairly well established, although we're always seeking some kind of direct, identifiable cause for developing an acoustic neuroma, i.e. cell phone usage, loud music, etc., ad infinitum, none of which are very convincing, despite various 'studies' that sometimes claim a correlation.  The Danish study in question noted a difference in married, better educated AN patients who seek treatment, which, as you noted, is logical and hardly a revelation.  Frankly, one can conjure up almost conclusion with statistics but your admittedly sardonic observation that those with better educations have health insurance is only partially accurate.  Most 'blue collar' labor unions have fantastic health insurance coverage for minimal cost, as do most public service unions (police, fire fighters, etc).  I had excellent health insurance but I still procrastinated seeing the doctor until my AN symptoms were impossible to ignore.  Who's fault was that?  Fortunately, it all worked out fine for me. 

To be candid, these 'studies' are mildly interesting but hardly definitive proof of anything so I'm always a tad skeptical regarding their conclusions.  Having had some interesting, one-on-one conversations with you, I assume you are, too.   

Jim    

[leapyrtwins]

I'm with you, Crazycat.

I think the premise of their argument is ridiculous too.

Jan

[Kaybo]

I'm still in for the fish hatcheries...I KNOW that is what causes them - married or not!!    

K   

[lori67]

Kay,

I thought it was being married to a fish with a cell phone?

Great... I guess the mystery of AN's is still not solved.

Lori

[leapyrtwins]

Kaybo and Lori, you crack me up! 

Love,

The Third Sister

[Crazycat]

Yes Jim, I know that I've tried to divine some root/cause that would provide an explanation as to why I had been afflicted with this. I have a feeling that it is entirely genetic though.

I remember walking home from kindergarten when I was five. I was walking across a huge open field. There was a guy off in the distance that looked like he was practicing driving golf balls. Too young to know what "golf" was I knew that he was hitting balls and launching them off like projectiles in my direction. I warily thought, "I hope I don't get hit by one of those things". No soon did I think that I was slammed on the left side of my head, directly on the ear. Everything became a blur and I ran home screaming.

I didn't have any problems that I could connect with the incident or with the ear until the age of eleven when I began to have very intense dizzy spells that would knock me off my feet. These seizures were few and far between however. There would be this buzzing in my head (like a vibration), everything would turn green, I'd get the spins, fall over and press my against the ground in a futile attempt to thwart the spinning and falling sensation that was strong enough to initiate vomiting. These dizzy spells stopped in my early teens and didn't return until my mid-twenties when I suffered my first (and only) full-blown inner ear infection. In other words, that dizziness erupted in its full hellishness one morning and didn't stop for close to two weeks. I remember that there were signs this infection was coming because my vision would sometimes act like a slow-moving horizontal hold on an old television set or oscilloscope that needed to be adjusted so as not to keep flipping up or down.That condition would come and go for weeks until one night I went to a club to hear a live band. It must have been the loud noise that did me in, although I didn't realize it at the time. When I woke up the next morning the room was spinning in almost a blur. It was like what happens if you have too much to drink and you get sick; only in my case, I hadn't had a drop.

The dizzy spells stopped (at age 26) not returning until age 31 and went away once again. It is interesting that in my early thirties when I felt an episode coming on I learned to ward it off by squinting and closing my eyes tight. I was fine until the age of 42 when the first signs of hearing loss became noticeable. After the hearing loss started, things just worsened from there with other problems, i.e., painful tinnitus, lightheadedness, double vision, fatigue, catastrophic equilibrium failure, etc...

After my diagnosis and surgeries, I ran this possible cause by my doctors and they dismissed it.
  

[Funnydream]

Looks to me like we are in a shooting gallery of cosmic rays. If any human lives long enough. Including you. Biological creatures will get cancer. We are mostly space at the atomic level. And when a particle hits a DNA stran in the right spot. The DNA is corrupted. But the cells keep dividing.

The only theory my 2010 tree frog human brain can come up with as far as being married.

Is that blow glass tube TVs and computer screen are electron guns that fire a stream of particles at a phosphorus screen. To light it up.

If your married. Your wife will demand you stay home with her. And those men will spend more time watching TV (sports) and being on the computer more. A single guy wants to mess around outside and go places (bar).

If my 2010 tree frog brain is right. Then flat screen technology should help.

If I'm wrong I would like to play my 2010 tree frog brain card.