Alcohol consumption is a dose-dependent risk factor for breast cancer but less that 20% of women know about this. This study concludes there is an urgent need for awareness-raising campaigns.

Author

Roberta Agabio, Clelia Madeddu, Paolo Contu, Sofia Cosentino, Monica Deiana, Elena Massa, Alessandra Mereu, Carola Politi, Claudia Sardu, Julia M A Sinclair

Citation

Roberta Agabio, Clelia Madeddu, Paolo Contu, Sofia Cosentino, Monica Deiana, Elena Massa, Alessandra Mereu, Carola Politi, Claudia Sardu, Julia M A Sinclair, Alcohol Consumption Is a Modifiable Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: Are Women Aware of This Relationship?, Alcohol and Alcoholism, Volume 57, Issue 5, September 2022, Pages 533–539, https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agab042


Source
Alcohol and Alcoholism
Release date
21/06/2021

Alcohol Consumption Is a Modifiable Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: Are Women Aware of This Relationship?

Journal article

Abstract

Aims

Despite alcohol consumption being a dose-dependent risk factor for breast cancer, a recent study conducted in the UK found less than 20% of women attending breast screening programmes were aware of this relationship and proposed proper information campaigns need to be conducted.

The researchers aimed to investigate the awareness of this relationship among a related sample of Italian women to evaluate whether similar information campaigns should also be conducted in Italy.

Methods

The questionnaire used by the UK study was translated into Italian, slightly modified for the Italian context, validated and submitted to a sample of Italian women.

Results

Overall 507 women were interviewed. Among them, 160 were classified as breast cancer screening attenders (SG), 44 as symptomatic breast clinic attenders (CAG) and 303 as non-screening group (NSG).

Alcohol was correctly identified as a risk factor for breast cancer by 16.9, 11.4 and 14.9% of participants of SG, CAG and NSG, respectively without differences between the three groups.

Despite the methodological differences, the rates of participants who correctly identified alcohol as a risk factor among women attending breast screening programmes were surprisingly similar between the study conducted in UK (15.7%) and the present study (16.9%).

Conclusion

The results of the present study confirm the limited awareness of the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of developing breast cancer among women and suggest the urgent need to conduct proper awareness-raising campaigns to counter this in the Italian female population.


Source Website: Oxford Academic