PHC 215 Assignment 1: Critical Review of Breast Cancer Study

This report presents a critical review of the research article "Determinants of breast cancer in Saudi women from Makkah region: a case-control study." The review examines the study's background, which highlights the importance of identifying breast cancer risk factors in the diverse population of Makkah. The methodology involved a case-control study with 432 female participants, focusing on socioeconomic factors, menstrual history, and other health-related characteristics. The results revealed associations between breast cancer and factors such as unemployment, large family size, lack of knowledge, obesity, smoking, and reproductive stages. The study also analyzed confounding factors and statistical analysis. The conclusion emphasizes the need for education programs to raise awareness and reduce the risk of breast cancer. The study's findings contribute to understanding breast cancer determinants in the Saudi Arabian context, highlighting the need for targeted interventions.

RUNNING HEAD: HEALTHCARE 0
“BREAST CANCER”

HEALTHCARE 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Methods...........................................................................................................................................2
Results..............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

HEALTHCARE 2
Introduction
In the report, the critical review of “Determinants of breast cancer in Saudi women from
Makkah region: a case-control study (breast cancer risk factors among Saudi women)” article is
done.
Background
The study describe that in Makkah there is diversity of the populations so it become
important to describe the appropriate factors of breast cancer among the diverse population.
However, researchers conducted the case-control study which includes various factors and
aspects such as socio-economic factors, histories of menstrual (Alsolami, et al., 2019). The
percentage of increase in breast cancer among population is raised among women; the earlier
researches revealed that breast cancer is increased due to number of factors which includes age,
lifestyles, family history and due to several other reasons (Alsolami, et al., 2019). The main aim
of the study is to understand the aspects and related factors for “postmenopausal women
diagnosed with breast cancer”.
Methods
The study was conducted between the years 2014 to 2016 at “King Abdullah Medical
City Hospital” which is in the Makkah region of Saudi Arabia. It is the only hospital which
offers treatments to the women who all diagnosed with the breast cancer (Alsolami, et al., 2019).
The study excluded the participants of other nationality and African- Asians ethnicity, the study
also does not include women who diagnosed with any other cancer. Therefore, the total number
of participates which involved in the study were 432 females in which “214 cases and 218
controls” were selected for the study. The groups were not comparable in the study because
participates who all selected were diagnosed by breast cancer.The study involve participates
which is > 45 years it is because the motive of the study is to include participates which were
newly diagnosed with the breast cancer. The exposure is measured in most adequate and reliable
manner by adopting same methods in both cases and control.

HEALTHCARE 3
The data collection was done through developing the questionnaire that is taking the
respondents through survey method. Further, data analysis is done by using “IBM SPSS
Statistics for Windows version 20.0”, that is statistical technique is used to analyze data. The
information gathering is done adopting convenience sampling method, the Body Mass Index is
measured after the measurement of height and weight “Any participant with a BMI < 18.5 kg/m2
was classified as underweight, normal weight was 18.5–24.9 kg/m2 , overweight was 25–29.9
kg/m2 and obese was > 30 kg/m2” (Alsolami, et al., 2019). The participants which is between
the age of 45 to 75 years old were involved in study, however, the mean age of case and control
group were 57 ± 7.3.
Results
From the investigation it is revealed that case and controls were matched adequately in
the article and revealed that there are various factors through which more of the women in
Makkah region diagnosed with breast cancer which includes more unemployment, lack of
knowledge, larger size of the family and less awareness regarding the effects of breast cancer as
well as the factors which give rise to the breast cancer (Alsolami, et al., 2019). Researchers also
examined all the confounding factors and strategies for dealing with those factors. The results
also reveal that there are several other reasons such as obesity, smoking, sedentary lifestyle.
Researchers revealed that unemployed is the major reason that is majority of the population who
all diagnosed from breast cancer is from the low income group. The obesity is also the another
risk factor that is high BMI category, it is find that 24.3% control group and 63.6% case group
revealed that obesity can be one of the reason for increasing breast cancer. The exposure is
measured in most adequate and reliable manner by using similar method.
Researchers describe that exercise and physical activity can support he person to reduce
the obesity among the women. The study revealed that smoking is also one of the issue and risk
because it leads in increasing tumours which increase several types of cancer; in study up to
1.4% in control group marked yes and percentage of population who agree were 17.8%. the
previous studies also revealed that smoking is become one of the reason which increase The
breast cancer that is risk is “6.78 times” more to the population who smoke in comparison to the
non-users (Alsolami, et al., 2019).The reproductive stage of women also results in hormonal

HEALTHCARE 4
change through which sometimes there is the development and occurrence of the breast tissue.
The meta-analysis of the study which involve “118,924 populations who all diagnosed with
breast cancer” and “306,091 without the disease” reveal that the younger the age there was
increase in the risk of breast cancer. Further, in control group 7.8% marked diabetes, 15.1%
reveal hypertension and 15.1% say hyperlipidemia is the reason by which more women were
diagnosed with breast cancer. However, in comparison to this in case group 33.6% marked
diabetes, 48.6% hypertension and 18.7% reveal hyperlipidemia (Alsolami, et al., 2019). The
influence of hormonal change at the stage of reproductive is dangerous and increases the risk of
breast cancer.
Conclusion
The investigation reveal that socioeconomic, obesity, history of menstruation is considered the
more risky in increasing the risk of breast cancer. Therefore, the less awareness is also the major
issues in Makkah region, so in order to reduce the rate of women the education programs will be
developed so that more awareness about breast cancer will be spread.

HEALTHCARE 5
References
Alsolami, F. J., Azzeh, F. S., Ghafouri, K. J., Ghaith, M. M., Almaimani, R. A., Almasmoum, H.
A., et al. (2019). Determinants of breast cancer in Saudi women from Makkah region: a
case-control study (breast cancer risk factors among Saudi women). BMC public health ,
19 (1), 1554.