Lifestyle Quality Indices and Female Breast Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Breast cancer (BC) poses an important burden of disease, which probably could be reduced by adopting healthy lifestyles like healthy body weight, healthy diet, and physical activity, among others. Many studies have reported that adherence to healthy lifestyles may decrease BC risk. The main objective of this study was to estimate a summary association of studies evaluating a healthy lifestyle index and BC risk. A systematic review and meta-analysis following the Cochrane methodology were carried out. Observational studies, including healthy lifestyle indices and their association with BC, were searched from 4 databases. For the meta-analysis, random-effects model was used to evaluate overall BC risk, BC by molecular subtype and menopausal status. Thirty-one studies were included in the systematic review, and 29 studies in the meta-analysis. When the highest vs. the lowest category to a healthy lifestyle index were compared, the study identified a 20% risk reduction for BC in prospective studies (hazard ratio [HR] 0.80 95% CI: 0.78, 0.83) and an odds ratio (OR) of 0.74 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.86) for retrospective studies. The inverse association remained statistically significant when stratified by menopausal status, except for premenopausal BC in prospective studies. Furthermore, an inverse association was found for molecular subtypes estrogen receptor (ER+)/progesterone receptor (PR+): HR = 0.68 (95%CI: 0.63, 0.73), ER+/PR-: HR = 0.78 (95% CI: 0.67, 0.90) and ER-/PR-: HR = 0.77 (95% CI: 0.64, 0.92). Most studies scored at a low risk of bias and a moderate score for the certainty of the evidence. Adherence to a healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of BC, regardless of its molecular subtypes, which should be considered a priority to generate recommendations for BC prevention at a population level. International prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO) ID: CRD42021267759.