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

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 60, pages 1046–1054 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

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.

Sponsorship:

This project has been financed with the aid of EXTRA funds from the Norwegian Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway

    G Skeie, A Hjartåker & E Lund

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    A Hjartåker

Authors
  1. G Skeie
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  2. A Hjartåker
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  3. E Lund
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G Skeie.

Additional information

Guarantor: G Skeie.

Contributors: GS did the nutrition calculations, the statistical analyses and wrote the manuscript. AH developed the original food frequency questions, and contributed to the analyses and manuscript writing. EL is the principal investigator for the Norwegian Women and Cancer study, and contributed to the analyses and manuscript writing.

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Skeie, G., Hjartåker, A. & Lund, E. Diet among breast cancer survivors and healthy women. The Norwegian Women and Cancer Study. Eur J Clin Nutr 60, 1046–1054 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602416

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