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. Published online 15 February 2006.