Alcohol consumption trajectories and risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women: a Danish cohort study

• Published in: European journal of epidemiology 2024-12
• Main Authors: Antoniussen, Christian S, Proust-Lima, Cécile, Ibsen, Daniel B, Olsen, Anja, Overvad, Kim, Tjønneland, Anne, Ferrari, Pietro, Dahm, Christina C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1573-7284; 1573-7284
• DOI: 10.1007/s10654-024-01179-5

Alcohol consumption is a risk factor for breast cancer (BC), yet little is known about longitudinal alcohol consumption patterns and risk of BC. This study aimed to investigate whether trajectory profiles of alcohol consumption across adulthood were associated with risk of first primary malignant BC in postmenopausal women. At baseline, 28,720 pre-and postmenopausal women aged 50-65 years from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health Cohort reported their average alcohol intake over the past 12 months and their average alcohol intake at the ages of 20, 30, 40, and 50 years. Alcohol consumption trajectories were estimated using latent class mixed models. BC cases were identified through record linkage to the Danish Cancer Registry. To examine associations between alcohol consumption trajectories and BC, we fitted a proportional hazard model adjusted for potential confounding factors using data from 24,543 postmenopausal women without missing covariate information. We identified 4 alcohol consumption trajectory profiles. During a median follow-up of 16.5 years, 1,591 cases of BC occurred. A mean alcohol consumption trajectory of > 10 g/day was associated with higher risk of BC (HR: 1.65, 95%CI: 1.35-2.03) compared to a mean alcohol consumption trajectory of