Early life growth, socioeconomic status, and mammographic breast density in an urban US birth cohort

Abstract

Purpose Rapid infant and childhood growth has been associated with chronic disease later in life, including breast cancer. Early life socioeconomic status (SES) influences childhood growth, but few studies have prospective measures from birth to consider the effects of early life growth and SES on breast cancer risk. Methods We used prospectively measured early life SES and growth (percentile weight change in height and weight between each pair of consecutive time points at birth, 4 months, 1 and 7 years). We performed linear regression models to obtain standardized estimates of the association between 1 standard deviation increase in early life SES and growth and adult mammographic density, a strong risk factor for breast cancer, in a diverse birth cohort (n=151; 37% White, 38% Black, 25% Puerto Rican; average age=42.1). Results In models adjusted for race, prenatal factors, birthweight, infant and childhood growth and adult body mass index (BMI), percentile weight change from 1 year to 7 years was inversely associated with percent mammographic density (%MD) (standardized coefficient (Stdβ) =−0.28, 95% CI:−0.55, −0.01), and higher early life SES was positively associated with %MD (Stdβ =0.24, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.43). Similar associations were observed for dense area, but those estimates were not statistically significance. Conclusions These results suggest opposite and independent effects of early life SES and growth on mammographic density.

Lifecourse socioeconomic status and cancer‐related risk factors: Analysis of the WHO study on global ageing and adult health (SAGE)

“…Compelling evidence suggests that socio-economic status (SES) influences adult health outcomes. [1][2][3][4] Multiple studies have reported significant associations between SES and cancer incidence and mortality, [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] although the associations vary by cancer type. For instance, incidence of lung cancer has been observed to be higher among low SES individuals, while incidence of breast cancer is observed to be higher among higher SES women.…”

Migration History, Language Acculturation, and Mammographic Breast Density

“…The consistent inverse association of MBD with foreign birth along with relatively small differences in MBD by the timing of migration in foreign-born women may point to possibility of differences in breast cancerrelevant prenatal or infancy exposures. These exposures associated with MBD in prior studies include prenatal tobacco exposures (42), birthweight, and postnatal growth (11,13,43), all of which are likely to vary between foreign-and native-born populations.…”

“…These include body size in early life (e.g., birthweight, postnatal growth, adolescent body size; refs. [11][12][13], reproductive events (e.g., parity, age at first birth; refs. 14,15), and exogenous hormonal exposures [e.g., tamoxifen, hormone replacement therapy (HRT); refs.…”

Early life socioeconomic environment and mammographic breast density

“…Given that differences in dense area were only observed for the two extreme categories of early life family income and the unexpected direction of this association, our results should be interpreted with caution. In a recent study of the New York City site of CPP birth cohort, we reported a significant positive association between a composite measure of parental SES at birth, composed of parental education, income and occupation and percent density, but did not observe any associations for dense and nondense areas after accounting for early life factors [38]. Here, we examined the same composite early life SES measure available for the New England CPP, but not the CHDS, and did not find any associations with any measures of mammographic density.…”