The Journal of

Introduction: Cancer is the third leading cause of death in the world. About 70% of deaths due to cancer occur in countries with low socio-economic status. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Iranian women and present information show an increase in the annual incidence rate of breast cancer among them and reduces the age of onset of this disease.

Methods: In this case-control study, 150 cases of women with breast cancer and 150 of healthy ones (controls) were selected and examined. Factors of socioeconomic and reproductive were studied. . Data collection was conducted through interview.  Association of various kinds of risk factors with breast cancer was studied using χ², odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals through both the univariate and multivariate analysis.

Results: The findings based on univariate analysis showed that education, occupation, spouse's job, income, history of breast disease, body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were significantly associated with breast cancer. After entering the significant variables in the multiple logistic regression model, age at first live birth (OR = 5.04), income (OR = 3.92) and BMI (BMI> = 30) (OR = 3.84) remained significant.

Conclusion: Note that in this study, lower income, delays in the birth of the first child and obesity were the major risk factors for breast cancer. Therefore women with these risk factors are recommended to take care for the prevention and early detection.