Abstract

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: Breast cancer; Risk factors; Tight bra stretch; Time use