Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan 14;19(1):4.
doi: 10.1186/s12937-020-0520-9.

Association between healthy lifestyle score and breast cancer

Batoul Ghosn  1 , Sanaz Benisi-Kohansal  1 , Soraiya Ebrahimpour-Koujan  1 , Leila Azadbakht  1 , Ahmad Esmaillzadeh  2   3   4
Affiliations

Association between healthy lifestyle score and breast cancer

Batoul Ghosn et al. Nutr J. .

Abstract

Background: Majority of earlier studies have assessed the association between individual lifestyle factors and the risk of breast cancer (BC); however, limited information is available linking the whole lifestyle factors to BC. We aimed to examine the association between combined lifestyle score (diet, physical activity (PA) and smoking) and risk of BC in Iranian population.

Methods: This population-based case-control study included 350 newly diagnosed cases of BC and 700 healthy controls randomly selected from adult women. Dietary intakes, PA and smoking status of study participants were examined using validated questionnaires. The lifestyle risk factors examined in this study included cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, and Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010). The lifestyle score ranged from zero (non-healthy) to 3 (most healthy) points. Logistic regression models were fitted to investigate the association between combined lifestyle scores and odds of BC.

Results: Mean age and body mass index (BMI) of study participants were 62.4 years and 24.3 kg/m2, respectively. In the whole study population, individuals with the highest healthy lifestyle score (HLS) were 0.38 times less likely to have BC than those with the lowest score (OR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.93, Ptrend = 0.01). The analysis by menopausal status showed that postmenopausal women with the highest HLS had 44% lower odds of BC compared with those with the lowest score (OR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.36, 0.88, P trend = 0.004). Such association was not seen in premenopausal women. After analyzing each component of HLS, we found that individuals with the highest HEI score were 46% less likely to have BC than those with the lowest score (OR: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.82, Ptrend < 0.001). No other significant associations were found between PA and smoking and risk of BC.

Conclusions: Significant inverse associations were found between HLS and HEI with BC especially among postmenopausal women. Prospective studies are required to confirm these findings.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Diet; Lifestyle; Physical activity; Smoking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Healthy lifestyle score construction
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. How diet, nutrition and physical activity affect breast cancer risk. https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/breast-cancer. Accessed 10 Nov 2019.
    1. Farhood B, Geraily G. Alizadeh AJIjoph. incidence and mortality of various cancers in Iran and compare to other countries: a review article. Iran J Public Health. 2018;47:309. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Forouzanfar Mohammad H, Foreman Kyle J, Delossantos Allyne M, Lozano Rafael, Lopez Alan D, Murray Christopher J L, Naghavi Mohsen. Breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis. The Lancet. 2011;378(9801):1461–1484. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61351-2. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lauby-Secretan Béatrice, Scoccianti Chiara, Loomis Dana, Grosse Yann, Bianchini Franca, Straif Kurt. Body Fatness and Cancer — Viewpoint of the IARC Working Group. New England Journal of Medicine. 2016;375(8):794–798. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsr1606602. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Key J, Hodgson S, Omar RZ, et al. Meta-analysis of studies of alcohol and breast cancer with consideration of the methodological issues. Cancer Causes Control. 2006;17:759–770. doi: 10.1007/s10552-006-0011-0. - DOI - PubMed