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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2025 Feb:79:103868.
doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2024.103868. Epub 2024 Dec 26.

Raising awareness of alcohol as a modifiable risk factor for breast cancer: A randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of accessing an interactive website with a non-interactive website

Claudia Sardu  1 , Fabrizio Angius  2 , Paolo Contu  1 , Sofia Cosentino  1 , Monica Deiana  3 , Matteo Fraschini  4 , Clelia Madeddu  1 , Elena Massa  1 , Alessandra Mereu  1 , Luigi Minerba  1 , Carola Politi  1 , Silvia Puxeddu  2 , Francesco Salis  5 , Julia M A Sinclair  6 , Roberta Agabio  7
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Raising awareness of alcohol as a modifiable risk factor for breast cancer: A randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacy of accessing an interactive website with a non-interactive website

Claudia Sardu et al. Breast. 2025 Feb.

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Alcohol consumption is a potentially modifiable risk factor for breast cancer (BC). Reducing alcohol consumption within the daily amount at low-risk for alcohol-related consequences (daily alcohol threshold) may contribute to preventing BC new cases. However, most women are unaware of risk factors for BC, the daily alcohol threshold, and how to measure alcohol use. We aimed at investigating the efficacy of accessing an interactive website in increasing the knowledge that alcohol is a BC risk factor.

Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial among women waiting for mammography. Women completed a questionnaire to investigate their knowledge before and after accessing an interactive (intervention group) and non-interactive (control group) website.

Results: We recruited 671 women, randomized 329 (49.0 %) and 342 (51.0 %) to the intervention and control groups, respectively. At baseline, most women were not aware of most modifiable BC risk factors. Accessing either website significantly increased the percentage of women who acquired the knowledge on BC risk factors, with the interactive website achieving better results: 82 % and 69 % of women acquired the knowledge that alcohol is a risk factor for BC in the intervention and control groups, respectively (p < 0.001). Among women with lower levels of education, the probability of acquiring this knowledge was higher in the intervention group than control group.

Conclusion: Our results show that accessing an interactive website may increase the percentage of women who acquire the knowledge that alcohol is a BC risk factor especially among women of lower levels of education.

Keywords: Alcohol; Awareness; Breast cancer; Interactive website; Modifiable risk factor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow-chart diagram of the study. The graph shows the recruitment of the sample of women while waiting to undergo mammography, the administration of the questionnaire at baseline, the division of the sample of participants into two groups who accessed the interactive and the not-interactive website, and the administration of the questionnaire after accessing the websites.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Knowledge of BC risk factors. The graph shows the knowledge of BC risk factors expressed as % of women who rightly mentioned each BC risk factor at baseline and after accessing the interactive and not-interactive website. Abbreviation: BC: breast cancer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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