Publication:

Risk factors for breast cancer among adult women residing in rural South Karnataka: a cross sectional study

Background There’s a steady increase in breast cancer incidence among rural women since rural women are increasingly adopting urban lifestyles, reproductive habits and are also increasingly exposed to similar environmental factors as urban women due to economic development. Objectives was to assess the prevalence of risk factors of breast cancer among women aged 30 years and above residing in a rural South Karnataka

Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2016 to January 2017 in villages under Ittamadu primary health centre area, Ramanagara Taluk, Ramnagara district.  A total of 600 women aged 30 years or above participated in the study. A semi structured questionnaire was administered by interview method after getting written consent. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test was used.

Results This study revealed that the prevalence of risk factors (reproductive and non-reproductive) of breast cancer among adult women aged 30 years and above was between the least prevalence of 0.7% for family history of breast cancer to highest prevalence of 37.5% for age at menarche at less than 13 years of age.

Conclusions Indian breast cancer patients present with advanced disease stage and have numerous poor prognostic factors, hence knowledge regarding the prevalence of risk factors is necessary to identify how many women are at risk of developing breast cancer as per the established risk factors to promote early detection and timely treatment for improved survival and quality of life of breast cancer patients.