Abstract P4-08-03: Evaluating the opportunity and need for communicating breast cancer risk reduction messages to US women
Authors: Weiss M , Hebard A , Boffetta P 
Published: August 2014

Background:

Before women can modify lifestyle factors to reduce breast cancer risk, they need to know which factors affect risk. This study aimed to identify the extent to which US women are aware of factors that can influence breast cancer risk, as well as develop a profile of women most interested in taking steps to reduce their risk.

Methodology:

A nationally representative sample of 1,692 women was obtained, with enhancements for specific groups, including mothers aged 25-39, African American, and Hispanic women. The women were sent a link to a short online survey Nov. 6-16, 2012. The survey had an 87% completion rate. The survey was available in English and Spanish and asked about the women's perceptions of personal health and lifestyle choices related to breast cancer risk, their knowledge of risk factors and action steps to reduce breast cancer risk, and their interest in learning more about risk factors and action steps to reduce risk.

Results:

The respondents’ ages ranged from 18 to 65, with 74% being 30-65. 68% of the women identified as white, 14% as Latina, 12% as African American, and 1% as Asian. Most of the women had had a child (74%). 2.6% of the women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. 65% of the women said they were a little or very overweight. Overall, the women believed that family history or a genetic mutation caused breast cancer 45.5% of the time. Lifestyle choices were thought to cause breast cancer 29.3% of the time and environmental exposures were thought to cause breast cancer 25.2% of the time. Regarding perceived impact of certain behaviors on breast cancer risk, more than half the women believed that not smoking/avoiding second-hand smoke, managing weight, avoiding unnecessary radiation, avoiding/limiting extra hormones, exercising, eating “real” food, getting the right amount of vitamin D, eating a plant-based diet, limiting alcohol consumption, breastfeeding, buying organic produce, using non-harmful personal care products, and cooking/storing food in non-reactive containers have a moderate to strong impact on reducing breast cancer risk. Yet the percentage of women who actually did each behavior was lower than the percentage of women who believed the factor had a moderate to strong impact on reducing risk for most of the factors. Most of the women (78%) were interested or very interested in learning how to reduce risk. Women who were committed to reducing risk and planned to seek out more information were most likely to be white, aged 30-51, have at least one child, and a little overweight. The top three factors these women wanted to learn more about were exercise (41%), monitoring weight (35%), and eating “real” food (30%). In contrast, these women were relatively uninterested in learning how to reduce their alcohol consumption (12%).

Conclusion:

The knowledge gap between the perceived causes of breast cancer and the putative causes of breast cancer is large, and the gap between the perceived impact of certain lifestyle factors on risk and actually doing these behaviors is even larger. There is opportunity to increase awareness of many important steps to reduce breast cancer risk.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P4-08-03.