Breast cancer risk factors based on reproductive and non-reproductive profiling of Pakistani women: A hospital based case control study

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is a global public health problem attributed to varying risk factors. The designing of a targeted screening program
focused on at-risk women can be cost-effective in reducing its burden. A hospital based case control study was conducted on 138
cases of breast cancer and 169 healthy controls to investigate the reproductive and non-reproductive risk factors for breast cancer in
Pakistani women. The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed with unconditional logistic regression.
Almost all i.e. 97.83% of cases were married (OR=5.03),70.29% were illiterate (OR=1.88), 73.19% were aged >35 years  (OR=0.632) and  81.16% belonged to the poor class(OR=1.81). Early age at menarche (OR, 2.55; 95% CI 1.50-4.31, P=0.0001),  hormone replacement therapy  (OR=2.057, 95% CI 1.283-3.295, P= 0.002) early pregnancy (OR,2.23, 95% CI 1.29-3.88, P=0.004),  history of miscarriage (OR, 2.11,  95% CI 1.32-3.39,P=0.002) & oral contraceptive use (OR, 2.76, 95% CI 1.54-4.92, P= 0.006)  were significantly associated with BC. The study  highlights the dire need for effective public health programs for high-risk women  to address this highly fatal disease.