Original Article

Study on high risk factors of breast cancer amongst working women from Delhi, India.

Anita Khokhar
World Journal of Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention 2013, 2:4

Abstract

Introduction

Breast cancer is on the rise in urban population of India. It is imperative to identify the high risk factors of this disease and screening practices of the women.

Study design

Descriptive, cross- sectional

Materials and methods

The community based study was conducted in all the women more than 20 years of age working at 10 different offices at Delhi, India. All those women who attended the breast cancer early detection programme conducted at their offices during 2012-13 were included in this study. Self administered questionnaire were used to collect the necessary data. Data was entered in Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 21 was used to analyse the results

Results

The present study was conducted in a total of 721 women from 10 offices of Delhi where only 12.2% had reached menarche before 12 years of age. From amongst the married women 24(4.3%) delivered their first child after 30 years of age. 96.7% of the married women with children had breast fed their new-born. History of oral contraceptive use was present in 301(41.7%) of the women. Only 48(6.6%) of the women had ever taken HRT. Red meat was not consumed by 452(62.6%) of the women and only 28/721(3.9%) consumed red meat 3 times or more in a week .Physical exercise of 30 minutes 5times or more per week was undertaken by only 49(6.8%).321(44.5%) of the women were overweight and 274(38%) obese. 19(2.6%) of the women had themselves undergone treatment for breast cancer. Main perceived reason for cancer of the breast cited by women was diet (adulteration/pesticides) 487(67.5%) followed by family history of breast cancer by 459(63.7%). Only 32(4.4%) had ever examined their breasts. None had gone for a clinical breast examination as a screening method and only five (0.7%) had gone for a screening mammogram from their side.

Conclusion

Overweight and lack of physical activity are widely prevalent in women. Also perceptions about the causes of breast cancer and practice of screening are poor. This calls for efforts to make them aware about the disease and the screening modalities.

Key words

Breast cancer, high risk factors, working women, screening.

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