Tea Consumption, Alcohol Drinking and Physical Activity Associations with Breast Cancer Risk among Chinese Females: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objective: To evaluate associations between tea consumption, alcohol drinking and physical activity andbreast cancer risk among Chinese females.
Methods: Three English databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect andWiley) and three Chinese databases (CNKI, WanFang and VIP) were independently searched by 2 reviewersup to December 2012, complemented by manual searches. The quality of included studies was assessed withthe Newcastle-Ottawa Scale items. Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled odds ratios (ORs)and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Potential publication bias was estimated through Egger’s and Begg’s tests.Heterogeneity between studies was evaluated with I2 statistics.
Results: Thirty-nine studies involving 13,204breast cancer cases and 87,248 controls were identified. Compared with non-drinkers, regular tea drinkers haddecreased risk (OR=0.79, 95%CIs: 0.65-0.95; I2=84.9%; N=16). An inverse association was also found betweenregular physical activity and breast cancer risk (OR=0.73, 95%CIs: 0.63-0.85; I2=77.3%; N=15). However,there was no significant association between alcohol drinking and breast cancer risk (OR=0.85, 95%CIs: 0.72-1.02; I2=63.8%; N=26). Most of the results from the subgroup analysis were consistent with the main results.
Conclusion: Tea consumption and physical activity are significantly associated with a decreased risk of breastcancer in Chinese females. However, alcohol drinking may not be associated with any elevation of risk.