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Is a Family History of the Breast Cancer Related to Women’s Cancer Prevention Behaviors?

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Abstract

Families share behavioral risk factors that can increase the risk of cancer development. We examined whether having a positive family breast cancer history is associated with health behaviors/screening practices. Analyses were based on a cross-sectional sample of 545 Brazilian National Cancer Institute Hospital patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer in 2013/2014. Women were categorized according to their breast cancer family history. Age-adjusted Poisson regressions with robust variance were performed to estimate the association between breast cancer family history and selected health-related behaviors and screening practices. About one fourth of women reported a positive family history of breast cancer. Contrary to expectation, we found that women with a family history of breast cancer did not report healthier behaviors more often than those without a family history. However, those with a family history were more likely to report a mammographic exam prior to the mammographic diagnosis. Our study suggests that having a family history of cancer is not sufficient to change women’s behaviors about physical activity, weight control and diet, smoking, and drinking, but it seems to influence their breast cancer screening behavior. Our results suggest the need to increase women’s information and/or understanding that healthier lifestyles contribute to cancer prevention.

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Abbreviations

SD:

Standard deviation

BMI:

Body mass index

CI:

Confidence interval

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Alexandre do Carmo, Beatriz Jardim, and Francisca Lucena for the support on the study design and data collection.

Funding

This study was supported by the Brazilian National Cancer Institute.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology, Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rua Marquês de Pombal 125/7° andar, Centro, Rio de Janeiro, 20230-240, Brazil

    Neilane Bertoni, Mirian Carvalho de Souza & Liz Maria de Almeida

  2. Division of Clinical Research, Brazilian National Cancer Institute (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Susanne Crocamo

  3. Division of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHU), Baltimore, MD, USA

    Moyses Szklo

Authors
  1. Neilane Bertoni
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  2. Mirian Carvalho de Souza
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  3. Susanne Crocamo
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  4. Moyses Szklo
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  5. Liz Maria de Almeida
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neilane Bertoni.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Bertoni, N., de Souza, M.C., Crocamo, S. et al. Is a Family History of the Breast Cancer Related to Women’s Cancer Prevention Behaviors?. Int.J. Behav. Med. 26, 85–90 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-018-9737-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-018-9737-9

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