Effect of dietary councelling on nutrient intake and performance status of breast cancer patients.

In present study, total 240 clinically proven female breast cancer patients were randomly selected, in which 120 were counseled patients kept in group-I and another 120 were non-counselled patients kept in group-II. There was no significant difference found between two groups in terms of base line nutrient intake and performance status. The information was collected with the help of questionnaire -cum-interview technique. Energy and fat intake was significantly decreased during two subsequent follow up in group-I due to diet councelling, on the other hand significantly increase in group-II. The findings of the present study suggested that diet counseling has significant impact on intake of adequate nutrients responsible for prevention of breast cancer and to acquire maximum performance status in terms of Kernofsky scale in order to minimize the complaints encountered by the patients. Effect of dietary councelling on nutrient intake and performance status of breast cancer patients SWETA RAI, SUNITA MISHRA AND ROLI AGRAWAL Asian Journal of Home Science (June, 2010) Vol. 5 No. 1 : 84-89 Carcinoma of the breast cancer is the most site-specific cancer in women and females. The mortality from breast cancer appears to have decreased by 30% over the last decade in western world. In 1970, the probability of a women in the United States developing breast cancer was estimated 1 in 13; in 1980 it was 1 in 11 and in 1996 it was 1 in 8 (Bland et al, 1999) In India, breast cancer is the second cancer in female after carcinoma cervix. It is rapidly catching up with cervical cancer as the most common cause of cancer among Indian women. A recent publication also confirmed earlier observations that breast cancer has replaced cervical cancer as the leading site of cancer among women in Indian cities (Mudur, 2005). Changes in diet seems to be an important prevention strategy to reduce the incidence of breast cancer. A relationship has been established between cancer and a high fat diet; the latter has been found to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. A diet high in fibre, conversely; seems to have a preventive influence on this disease. Vitamin A, beta-carotenes and vitamin which act as antioxidant agents may help to protect cells from becoming malignant (Kalb, 1990). Therefore, present study was conducted to know the nutrient intake of breast cancer. METHODOLOGY Overall two hundred forty histo-pathologically proven female breast cancer patients were randomly selected from the surgical oncology Department of Sir Sunder Lal Hospital B.H. U. , Varanasi. These cases were divided in two groups of 120 each. The patients in group-I were provided diet counseling along with drug therapy. On the other hand group-II patients were not provided such benefits and they was considered exclusively noncounseled, but they received drug therapy. As such group I was designed as counseled group and group II as non counseled group. Due to various constraints, only 58 (24.2%) participated in follow-up visits, of them 30 patients (25.0%) and 28 (23.3%) belonged to counseled group and non-counseled group, respectively. A performed questionnaire was used to record personal data, anthropometric measurements, dietary intake and activity record of the selected women. Anthropometric measurements height (cm), weight (kg.), BMI (kg/m) were recorded for all the two hundred forty subjects. The dietary intake of all the women was assessed by interviewing the women with the help of household measures relevant to Indian cuisine models to construct the individual women’s 24-hour food intake. Raw amounts for the cooked food items were derived by standardizing the preparatory methods of different menu items. The data were tabulated and subjected to appropriate statistical analysis. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The findings obtained from the present study have been discussed under following subheads : Background informations: It is evident from Table 1 that more then two fifth See end of the article for authors’ affiliations Correspondence to: SUNITA MISHRA Department of Home Science, Banaras Hindi University, VARANASI (U.P.) INDIA Accepted : February, 2010