Table 1

Demographic and hormone-related risk factors

Variables
Cases by availability of ER/PR information
Controls




Cases with known receptor status
Cases with borderline positive/undecided status
Cases without information
p for comparison across the three case groups


Number of subjects
1,366 (79.2%)
83 (4.8%)
276 (16.0%)

440
Mean age at reference date (SD), years
42.5 (5.4)
42.8 (5.2)
44.0 (4.6)
0.0001a,b
42.6 (4.9)
Race





     White
1,206 (88.3%)
77 (92.8%)
238 (86.2%)

405 (92.0%)
     African-American
160 (11.7%)
6 (7.2%)
38 (13.8%)
0.26c
35 (8.0%)
Education





     High school or lower
262 (19.2%)
19 (22.9%)
76 (27.5%)

60 (13.6%)
     Technical school or some college
489 (35.8%)
28 (33.7%)
103 (37.3%)

150 (34.1%)
     College graduate
615 (45.0%)
36 (43.4%)
97 (35.2%)
0.01c,d
230 (52.3%)
First-degree breast cancer family history





     No
1,091 (79.9%)
63 (75.9%)
224 (81.1%)

388 (88.2%)
     Yes
229 (16.7%)
19 (22.9%)
46 (16.7%)

41 (9.3%)
     Unknowne
46 (3.4%)
1 (1.2%)
6 (2.2%)
0.39c
11 (2.5%)
Mean age at menarche (SD), years
12.4 (1.5)
12.6 (1.7)
12.4 (1.4)
0.51a
12.7 (1.5)
Ever had a full-term (>26-week) pregnancy
66.6%
74.7%
68.5%
0.28c
71.6%
Mean number of full-term pregnancies (SD)
2.1 (1.0)
2.1 (1.1)
2.1 (0.9)
0.92a
2.2 (1.1)
Mean age at first full-term pregnancy (SD)
26.7 (6.4)
26.2 (6.2)
24.9 (5.8)
0.002a,b
27.1 (6.2)
Ever breastfed among parous women
80.4%
77.4%
70.9%
0.01c,d
87.9%
Mean duration of breastfeeding (all pregnancies) among those who breastfed (SD), months
14.2 (16.3)
13.7 (13.6)
12.6 (14.6)
0.56a
16.6 (17.3)
Mean BMI 1 year before reference date (SD), kg/m2
25.8 (6.1)
26.2 (6.4)
26.6 (6.5)
0.12a
25.7 (6.4)
Ever used COC
85.9%
84.3%
85.9%
0.92c
89.3%
Mean duration of COC use among users (SD), years
6.9 (6.3)
5.8 (6.6)
6.4 (6.4)
0.23a
6.7 (6.2)
Alcohol drinking status during reference age





     Never
428 (31.3%)
34 (41.0%)
96 (37.8%)

141 (32.1%)
     Former
259 (19.0%)
16 (19.3%)
53 (19.2%)

90 (20.5%)
     Current
679 (49.7%)
33 (39.7%)
127 (46.0%)
0.30c
209 (47.5%)
Alcohol drinking status in recent 5-year period





     No
428 (31.3%)
34 (41.0%)
96 (34.8%)

141 (32.1%)
     Yes
759 (55.6%)
40 (48.2%)
137 (49.6%)

228 (51.8%)
     Yes, but not in the five year period
179 (13.1%)
9 (10.8%)
43 (15.6%)
0.17c
71 (16.1%)
Mean number of alcoholic drinks per week in recent 5 years for drinkers (SD)
6.6 (20.1)
4.9 (6.1)
6.0 (8.4)
0.80a
4.6 (9.1)

Results are for 1,725 case patients and 440 control subjects. BMI, body mass index; COC, combined oral contraceptive; ER/PR, estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor; SD, standard deviation. aF test. bBonferroni t tests for pairwise comparisons: p values for cases with complete ER/PR information versus cases without ER/PR information ≤ 0.001, and p values for the other comparisons ≥ 0.20. cPearson χ2 test. dPearson χ2 tests for pairwise comparisons: p values for cases with complete ER/PR information versus cases without ER/PR information ≤ 0.004, and p values for the other comparisons ≥ 0.32. eUnknown category was excluded from Pearson χ2 tests.

Ma et al. Breast Cancer Research 2006 8:R39   doi:10.1186/bcr1514