Age- and sex-specific data on all-cause mortality and cancer incidence rates for England were obtained from the Office for National Statistics for 2012, as this date represented the midpoint of the follow-up period for UK Biobank participants (13, 14). For all-cause mortality, follow-up time (person-years) in the UK Biobank cohort was calculated as the period ranging from age at recruitment to age at death or the date of complete follow-up (November 30, 2015), whichever came first; for cancer incidence rates, follow-up time was defined as the period ranging from age at recruitment to age at first cancer diagnosis, death, or the date of complete follow-up (September 30, 2014), whichever came first (among persons with no cancer at recruitment, based on cancer registry data). Cancer incidence rates were calculated for total cancer (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer), defined using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), codes C00–C97 (excluding code C44), and common types—prostate (ICD-10 code C61), breast (ICD-10 code C50), colorectal (ICD-10 codes C18–C20), lung (ICD-10 codes C33–C34), endometrium (ICD-10 code C54), and kidney (ICD-10 code C64).
