Search

Background: Cancer screening provides an opportunity to increase awareness of cancer-preventive lifestyle behaviors such as nonsmoking, physical activity, low alcohol consumption, and a healthy diet. We tested the effect of standardized, individually tailored written feedback (TF), and a standard leaflet (SL) on 1-year lifestyle behaviors in a colorectal cancer screening setting. Methods: A total of 3,642 men and women aged 50-74 years invited to sigmoidoscopy screening were randomly assigned to: (i) TF; (ii) SL for cancer-preventive lifestyle behaviors; or (iii) control. Participants were mailed two self-reported lifestyle questionnaires (LSQ) 1 year apart. The TF intervention was based on the prescreening LSQ answers. We analyzed differences [with 95% confidence intervals (CI)] by comparing prescreening to 1-year follow-up of single cancer-preventive factors and the number of cancer-preventive lifestyle behaviors (range 0-4) between the groups by multivariable logistic regression and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results: A total of 1,054 screening participants without neoplastic findings (29% of those invited to screening) were included in this study. Participants in the TF group increased their number of cancer-preventive lifestyle behaviors significantly compared with those in the control group by 0.11 (95% CI, 0.02 to 0.19). Overweight/obese individuals in the TF group had a -0.84 kg (95% CI, -1.47 to -0.22) larger reduction in body weight compared with the control group. Conclusions: TF at sigmoidoscopy screening led to small improvements in cancer-preventive behaviors. Impact: Colorectal cancer screening is a suitable setting for increasing awareness of cancer-preventive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the risk of breast cancer associated with body mass index in White and African-American Women. Women's Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study data was used in the study, which involved 3,997 white and African-American breast cancer patients who were diagnosed between 1994 and 1998 and 4,041 35-64 years old control participants. The authors conclude that body mass index at 18 years old of women aged 35 to 64 years is inversely associated with breast cancer risk but it can be affected by menopause status, race and hormone.