RESEARCH ARTICLE


Identification of Risk Factors for Breast Cancer for Women in Istanbul



Sevim Çelik*, 1, Güler Aksoy2
1 Zonguldak Karaelmas University, Zonguldak School of Nursing, Surgical Nursing Department, Turkey
2 Istanbul University, Florence Nightingale College of Nursing, Surgical Nursing Department, Turkey


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Creative Commons License
2007 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Zonguldak Sağlik Yüksekokulu, 67100, Site/ZONGULDAK, Turkey; Tel: (90) (372) 257-4191, Ext. 119; Fax: (90) (372) 257-6750; E-mail: sevimak@superonline.com


Abstract

Background:

Breast cancer is the most common cancer type seen in women, accounts for 18% of all cancer types in women and the risk of a woman to get breast cancer during her life is 11%. These notified rates enable breast cancer to be defined as a preventable and if pre-diagnosed, a treatable cancer type, despite it was regarded as a terrifying type of cancer in the past.

Objective:

The aim of the study was to determine the lifestyle pattern of women without breast cancer in Istanbul.

Method:

The study was carried out as a descriptive and cross-sectional study with 1000 women.

Results:

The majority of the women (29.7%) were in the 35-44 year old age group. Out of these 93.1% gave birth before the age of 30, 29.5% breastfed for 7-12 months, 65.8% started menarche between 13-15 years of age (mean of 13.3 years), 15.5% were in menopause and had entered menopause at a mean age of 46.5 years. Their mean body mass index was 24.3kg/m2 and 24.5% of them preferred foods containing high fat content. The majority of the women (85.4%) did not participate in sports regularly. One third (30.3%) of the women had underwent Breast Self Examination. There was a positive family history of breast cancer for 12.1% of the women.

Conclusion:

Sedentary lifestyles, lower Breast Self Examination and routine mammography rates and family histories of breast cancer were the risk factors that needed to be given priority for further action.

Keywords: Breast cancer, behavioral risk factors, lifestyle changes.