Diet among breast cancer survivors and healthy women. The Norwegian Women and Cancer Study.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the diet and lifestyle in breast cancer survivors and healthy women.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study in the population-based Norwegian Women and Cancer cohort study, using a postal questionnaire on diet, lifestyle and health.

SETTING

Nation-wide, population-based study.

SUBJECTS

Women aged 41-70 years. Prevalent breast cancer cases (314 short-term with 1-5 years since diagnosis, 352 long-term with >5 years since diagnosis) were identified by linkage to the Norwegian Cancer Registry. The comparison group consisted of 54,314 women.

INTERVENTIONS

Analyses of variance, with post hoc Bonferroni tests when significant differences were found.

RESULTS

Overall there were few differences in the diet of the three groups. Short-term survivors ate more fruits and vegetables than healthy women (P<0.0001), and consumed more of nutrients associated with fruit and vegetables (fibre, mono- and disaccharides, folate, vitamin C and potassium). Short-term breast cancer survivors also had a higher use of dietary supplements and a lower level of physical activity, but did not differ from healthy women on other lifestyle factors. The long-time survivors did not differ from any of the other groups.

CONCLUSION

Diet and lifestyle is generally similar between breast cancer survivors and healthy women, especially more than 5 years after diagnosis.