Association between height and the risk of primary brain malignancy in adults: a nationwide population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND: The association between height and the risk of developing primary brain malignancy remains unclear. We evaluated the association between height and risk of primary brain malignancy based on a nationwide population-based database of Koreans. METHODS: Using data from the Korean National Health Insurance System cohort, 6 833 744 people over 20 years of age that underwent regular national health examination were followed from January 2009 until the end of 2017. We documented 4771 cases of primary brain malignancy based on an ICD-10 code of C71 during the median follow-up period of 7.30 years and 49 877 983 person-years. RESULTS: When dividing the population into quartiles of height for each age group and sex, people within the highest height quartile had a significantly higher risk of brain malignancy, compared to those within the lowest height quartile (HR 1.21 CI 1.18–1.32) after adjusting for potential confounders. We also found that the risk of primary brain malignancy increased in proportion with the quartile increase in height. After analyzing subgroups based on older age (≥ 65) and sex, we found positive relationships between height and primary brain malignancy in all subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to suggest that height is associated with an increased risk of primary brain malignancy in the East-Asian population. Further prospective and larger studies with precise designs are needed to validate our findings.