Obesity and breast cancer risk in Malaysia: an insight

Mohd Razif, Shahril and Sharifah Wajihah Wafa, Syed Saadun Tarek Wafa (2014) Obesity and breast cancer risk in Malaysia: an insight. Obesity Reviews, 15 (2). pp. 11-12. ISSN 1467-789X

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Abstract

Obesity has been shown to decrease breast cancer risk among premenopausal women while increasing risk among postmenopau-sal women. This study was conducted to determine the association between obesity and breast cancer risk among Malaysian women. A population based case-control study was carried out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia among 382 newly diagnosed breast cancer cases and 382 controls. Weight and height were measured using cali-brated tools and body mass index (BM!) was calculated for obesity classification. Logistic regression was used to compute adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The results of this study indicated that obese women have an OR of 1.35 (95% CI, 0.50-2.61) for premenopausal breast cancer risk and an OR of 0.87 (95% CI, 0.33-2.64) for postmenopausal breast cancer risk. As for the overweight premenopausal women, their breast cancer risk is 0.82 (95% CI, 0.32-2.07) and 1.41 (95% CI, 0.42-2.79) for the postmenopausal women. These findings suggest that being an obese or overweight may have a similar risk of breast cancer with a normal weight woman. It appears that obesity is not significantly associated with pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer risk among women in this study population. Although obesity is not associated with breast cancer risk in the current cohort, it is alarming to note that more than half of the study participants are overweight and obese. Therefore, more studies are warranted to address the public health implications of obesity among women in Malaysia.

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