Healthy lifestyle behaviors and the periodicity of mammography screening in Brazilian women

Introduction: Certain behaviors have been associated with health promotion, including mammography screening, in women worldwide.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether there is an association between the periodicity of mammography screening and healthy lifestyle behaviors in Brazilian women employed at a public university in Bahia, Brazil.

Methods: A total of 635 women of 50-69 years of age at the time of the interview, from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health cohort who were resident in Bahia, participated in the study. Data were collected using a multidimensional questionnaire that included questions on participants' sociodemographic characteristics and health-related behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, leisure-time physical activity and diet) and another questionnaire that dealt with risk factors and breast cancer screening. Measures of association were calculated using simple and multivariate logistic regression.

Results: The practice of physical activity, not smoking, moderate alcohol consumption and a healthy diet were the health behaviors most adopted by the women who had last had a mammogram ⩽2 years previously (which is in line with the interval recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Health). A statistically significant association was found between a lapse of ⩾3 years since last undergoing mammography screening and excessive alcohol consumption, while a borderline association was found between the same screening interval and leisure-time physical inactivity.

Conclusion: There was an association between lifestyle risk behaviors and a longer time interval between mammography screenings. The present results contribute to the debate on the use of mammography, lifestyle behaviors and health promotion among women.