WEARING A TIGHT BRA FOR MANY HOURS A DAY IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED RISK OF BREAST CANCER IN PRE- AND POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN. A CASE CONTROL STUDY IN LOW SOCIOECONOMIC POPULATION OF BRAZIL.

Salete da Silva Rios, Ana Carolina Rios Chen, Juliana Rios Chen, Carlos Marino Calvano Filho, Natacha Thalita Santos Amorim, Chen Wen Lin, Maria de Fatima Brito Vogt

Institution: Universidade de Brasília

“Background – Breast cancer is the leading neoplasm affecting women. Despite all of the studies in this field, the aetiology of breast cancer has not been fully elucidated. The present study was the first to investigate the number of hours that women wear a bra associated with its stretch percentage in a case-control study. Methods – In total, 152 patients with breast cancer and 152 controls were investigated regarding risk factors for breast cancer and bra-wearing habits. The bra and the chest of the patient at the bra band level were measured. The percentage obtained was multiplied by the number of hours per day that the bra is worn. The data were analysed using multivariate analysis with Poisson regression. Results – Women who had a high daily bra wearing hours x bra stretch percentage coefficient had a frequency of breast cancer that was 2.27-fold higher compared to those who had a low coefficient. This result demonstrated that there is an association between these variables and breast cancer among pre- and postmenopausal women. Conclusions -This study demonstrated a correlation between wearing a tight bra for several hours per day and an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

Keywords – Tight Bra, breast cancer, risk factors, bra stretch, pre-postmenopausal