Subgrouping of Iranian Women Based on Breast Cancer Risk Factors in A Population-Based Screening Program.

Background: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women worldwide. The aim of this study was to find the subgroups of women on the basis of clustering of breast cancer risk factors. Methods: : This cross sectional study was performed within the framework of Shiraz breast cancer screening program between 2004 and 2013. Clinical breast examination, mammography or sonography, fine needle aspiration or biopsy, and surgery in case of indications were performed for all participants. Also, face-to-face interviews were performed by trained staff using a structured questionnaire to collect demographic information. Latent class analysis was used to achieve study’s objectives. Results: : four latent classes were indemnified; 1) general population risk (83.4% in healthy and 65.7% in diseased women), 2) moderate risk (7.8% in healthy and 20.5% in diseased women), 3) semi moderate risk [for healthy women (7.6%)] / low risk [for diseased women (8.9%)], and 4) low risk [for healthy women(0.9%)] /high risk [for diseased women(4.9%)]. This study showed that among healthy and diseased women, in the latent class 1 and 2 there was a similar pattern of breast cancer risk factors. However, in latent class 3 and 4 there were some different in the clustering of risk factors among two groups. Conclusions: : Results from the present study indicated that among healthy women, 15.4% of them fell under moderate risk or semi moderate risk classes, which stresses the necessity of implementing educational and preventive intervention for this stratum of women.