The Prevalence and Correlates of Breast Cancer among Women in Eastern China

The purpose was to investigate the prevalence rate, characteristics and related factors of breast cancer among women in Eastern China. A total of 122,058 female subjects completed the study, with 320 confirmed cases of breast cancer (crude prevalence: 262.5/100,000; standardized prevalence: 207.7/100,000). Among all of the identified breast cancer cases, 91.6% were diagnosed after the age of 35 and 60.0% were diagnosed before menopause. The odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of those breast cancer risk factors as selected through multivariate logistic regression were as follows: 5.438 (1.553–19.004) for family history of breast cancer, 3.556 (1.880–6.728) for high behavior intervention score, 3.556 (0.904–13.994) for history of diabetes, 3.357 (1.131–9.969) for history of benign breast tumors, 2.196 (1.355–3.556) for poor overall life satisfaction, 1.826 (0.995–3.350) for premenopause of breast cancer, 1.528 (1.083–2.155) for high BMI index, 1.500 (0.920–2.446) for poor financial status, 1.497 (1.014–2.211) for multiple miscarriages/abortions, and 1.231 (0.972–1.559) for infrequent consumption of garlic (frequent garlic consumption is a protective factor). There were significantly more cases of breast cancer diagnosed prior to menopause than after menopause, and most of the patients were diagnosed after the age of 35. These findings suggest that attention should be focused on the incidence of breast cancer among premenopausal women older than 35.