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.Sponsorship:This project has been financed with the aid of EXTRA funds from the Norwegian Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 15 February 2006; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602416.