title: Risk of breast cancer among female teachers of physical education and languages.
abstract: A retrospective follow-up study on 924 physical education (PE) and 3,239 language (L) teachers was performed to study whether life-long high physical activity affects the risk of breast cancer. The Finnish Cancer Registry found 128 malignant breast cancers among these women in a follow-up during 1967-1987. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for all PE teachers was 1.28 (n.s.) and for L teachers 1.59 (p less than 0.001). Before the menopause (below age 50) SIR for PE teachers was 0.93 (n.s.) and for L teachers 1.51 (p less than 0.05). These results suggest that before menopause the risk of breast cancer in physically active PE is smaller than in the less active L. A Poisson regression analysis, taking into account the reproductive factors together with age and observation period, did not show any significant difference between PE and L teachers, probably due to the relatively small number of cases (n = 22) in the PE teacher group.
authors.affiliation: LIKES-Research Center, Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: V J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Vihko
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Apter
authors.forename: E I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Pukkala
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Oinonen
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Hakulinen
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Vihko
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008875:Middle Aged; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013663:Teaching