Association between Healthy Eating Index-2015 and Breast Cancer Risk: A Case-Control Study

Kord- Varkaneh, Hamed; Salehi- Sahlabadi, Ammar; Zarezade, Meysam; Rahmani, Jamal; Tan, Shing Cheng; Hekmatdoost, Azita; Rashidkhani, Bahram

doi:10.31557/APJCP.2020.21.5.1363

Association between Healthy Eating Index-2015 and Breast Cancer Risk: A Case-Control Study

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

¹ Student Research Committee, Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Nutrition and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

² Department of Clinical Nutrition, Student Research Committee, Nutrition Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

³ UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

⁴ Department of Community Nutrition, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

10.31557/APJCP.2020.21.5.1363

Abstract

Objective: Diet quality is known to influence cancer risk. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is one of the most frequently used measures of diet quality. However, the association between HEI-2015 and breast cancer risk is not known. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the association between HEI-2015 and breast cancer risk. Methods: A case-control study comprising 134 breast cancer patients and 265 cancer-free controls were conducted. Dietary intakes were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), from which the HEI-2015 score was calculated. Logistic regression was used to derive the odds ratios (ORs) for measuring the association between HEI-2015 scores and breast cancer risk. Results: Subjects in the top quartile of HEI-2015 had a 46% lower chance of breast cancer compared with subjects in the bottom quartile (OR 0.54; 95% CI 0.30, 0.98). After adjustment for potential confounders such as age, age at menarche, oral contraceptive drug use, menopausal status, marital status, body mass index, smoking and education level, the association between HEI-2015 score and a lower risk of breast cancer was enhanced (OR 0.32; 95% CI 0.16, 0.65). Conclusion: We successfully demonstrated that a higher HEI-2015 score was associated with a reduced breast cancer risk.

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