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Associations between anthropometric characteristics, physical activity, and breast cancer risk in a Canadian cohort

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Obesity, physical inactivity, and sedentary behavior, concomitants of the modern environment, are potentially modifiable breast cancer risk factors. This study investigated the association of anthropometric measurements, physical activity and sedentary behavior, with the risk of incident, invasive breast cancer using a prospective cohort of women enrolled in the Canadian Study of Diet, Lifestyle and Health. Using a case-cohort design, an age-stratified subcohort of 3,320 women was created from 39,532 female participants who returned completed self-administered lifestyle and dietary questionnaires at baseline. A total of 1,097 incident breast cancer cases were identified from the entire cohort via linkage to the Canadian Cancer Registry. Cox regression models, modified to account for the case-cohort design, were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for the association between anthropometric characteristics, physical activity, and the risk of breast cancer. Weight gain as an adult was positively associated with risk of post-menopausal breast cancer, with a 6 % increase in risk for every 5 kg gained since age 20 (HR 1.06; 95 % CI 1.01–1.11). Women who exercised more than 30.9 metabolic equivalent task (MET) hours per week had a 21 % decreased risk of breast cancer compared to women who exercised less than 3 MET hours per week (HR  0.79; 95 % CI 0.62–1.00), most evident in pre-menopausal women (HR  0.62; 95 % CI 0.43–0.90). As obesity reaches epidemic proportions and sedentary lifestyles have become more prevalent in modern populations, programs targeting adult weight gain and promoting physical activity may be beneficial with respect to reducing breast cancer morbidity.

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Acknowledgments

Drs. Rohan and Catsburg are supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Financial support partially provided by the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative (Grant 016025 awarded to S. Leatherdale).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Chelsea Catsburg & Thomas E. Rohan

  2. Prevention and Cancer Control, Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Victoria A. Kirsh, Nancy Kreiger & Thi Ho

  3. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Victoria A. Kirsh & Nancy Kreiger

  4. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Colin L. Soskolne

  5. Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, Australia

    Colin L. Soskolne

  6. Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Erin Bruce

  7. School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Scott T. Leatherdale

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  1. Chelsea Catsburg
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  2. Victoria A. Kirsh
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  3. Colin L. Soskolne
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  4. Nancy Kreiger
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  8. Thomas E. Rohan
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Correspondence to Chelsea Catsburg.

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Catsburg, C., Kirsh, V.A., Soskolne, C.L. et al. Associations between anthropometric characteristics, physical activity, and breast cancer risk in a Canadian cohort. Breast Cancer Res Treat 145, 545–552 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-2973-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-014-2973-z

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