Healthy Lifestyle and Breast Cancer Risk in Palestinian Women: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between a combined healthy lifestyle score and the risk of breast cancer (BC) in Palestinian women. A hospital-based case-control study compared 237 BC cases with confirmed diagnoses to 237 healthy controls. Women’s lifestyle components were assessed using a validated questionnaire. A healthy lifestyle index (HLI) has been developed. We used logistic regression models to investigate the relationship between combined lifestyle scores and BC odds. The results revealed that HLI was significantly higher in the control group than in the study group. A higher HLI score was associated with a lower risk of BC in the multivariate analysis. The adjusted odds ratios (AOR) were 0.19 for all women, 0.15 for postmenopausal women, and 0.23 for premenopausal women when the HLI highest and lowest tertiles were compared. HLI score increases of one point resulted in a 41% reduction in the risk of BC for all women, a 42% reduction for postmenopausal and premenopausal women, and a 39% reduction for postmenopausal women. Women who live a healthy lifestyle, according to our findings, have a lower risk of breast cancer. BC prevention programs must promote long-term healthy food and lifestyle choices.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all participants for their willingness to participate and the Ministry of Health teams for facilitating the study implementation. Also, the authors wish to express their gratitude to Al Quds University for funding this research.

Author Contributions

Nuha El Sharif: Conceptualization, Methodology, validation supervising of data management and analysis. Nuha El Sharif was responsible for original draft writing, editing, and reviewing. Imtithal khatib: Fieldwork, software development, data analysis, and data interpretation, and MS review. All authors read and approved the final manuscript

Availability of Data and Materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Consent for Publication

NA.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

This study was approved by Al Quds University Ethical Research Committee, which is based on the Helsinki declarations. Therefore, all study methods were performed following the Helsinki guidelines and regulations. Al Quds University’s ethical research regulations adhere to Helsinki regulations

Written approval was obtained from the Ministry of Health to access patient records from the oncology department and cancer registry. All participants provided written informed consent.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Al Quds University research funds.