Self-reported stress and risk of breast cancer
CancerPublished 15 March 1996Open access
Felicia Roberts, Polly A. Newcomb, Amy Trentham-Dietz, Barry E. Storer
Citations86
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score2.95
SNIP1.90
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TL;DR
The relationship between breast cancer and stressful life events has had inconsistent outcomes, due in part to studies with small sample sizes and reliance on hospital‐based populations.
Abstract
Breast cancer patients and controls experienced the same number of stressful life events in the five years prior to diagnosis or an equivalent reference date (controls), averaging 2.4 and 2.6 events, respectively. After adjustment for known breast cancer risk factors, there was no association between weighted stressful life event scores and the risk of breast cancer (odds ratio [OR] = 0.90 per unit increase; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78-1.05). Only one life event, death of a close friend, was significantly more often reported by controls (OR = 0.72; 95% CI, 0.52-1.00). Other life events were inconsistently and nonsignificantly associated with breast cancer risk. CONCLUSIONS. The results of this retrospective study do not suggest any important associations between stressful life events and breast cancer risk.
Keywords
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