Obesity and height in urban Nigerian women with breast cancer

PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between obesity, height, and breast cancer in an urban Nigerian population. METHODS: Between March 1998 and August 2000, we conducted a case-control study of hospital-based breast cancer patients (n = 234) and population-based controls (n = 273) using nurse interviewers in urban Southwestern Nigeria. RESULTS: The study did not find a significant association between obesity (BMI greater than or equal to 30) and breast cancer among all women (OR = 1.51, 95% CI 0.87-2.62) pre- (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 0.56-2.60) and post-menopausal breast cancer patients (OR 1.82, 95% CI = 0.78-4.31) in multivariate logistic regression analysis, while increasing height was positively associated with the risk of breast cancer among all women (OR 1.05, 1.01 - 1.08), pre- (1.06, 1.01-1.10) and post-menopausal women (1.07, 1.01-1.13) for each cm. Age, irregular period, and early age of onset of periods were also found to be significantly associated with breast cancer risk. CONCLUSION: This study failed to demonstrate an association between breast cancer risk and obesity while showing that height is positively associated with risk of breast cancer in urbanized Nigerian women. Ann Epidermol 2003;13:455-461. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.