Skip Navigation


American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on July 15, 2009
American Journal of Epidemiology 2009 170(5):598-606; doi:10.1093/aje/kwp176
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
170/5/598    most recent
kwp176v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Moorman, P. G.
Right arrow Articles by Schildkraut, J. M.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Moorman, P. G.
Right arrow Articles by Schildkraut, J. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2009. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Ovarian Cancer Risk Factors in African-American and White Women

Patricia G. Moorman, Rachel T. Palmieri, Lucy Akushevich, Andrew Berchuck and Joellen M. Schildkraut

Correspondence to Dr. Patricia G. Moorman, Box 2949, Duke University Medical Center, 2424 Erwin Road, Suite 602, Durham, NC 27705 (e-mail: patricia.moorman{at}duke.edu).

Received for publication February 5, 2009. Accepted for publication May 27, 2009.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic malignancy in both African-American and white women. Although prevalences of many ovarian cancer risk factors differ markedly between African Americans and whites, there has been little research on how the relative contributions of risk factors may vary between racial/ethnic groups. Using data from a North Carolina case-control study (1999–2008), the authors conducted unconditional logistic regression analyses to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for ovarian cancer risk factors in African-American (143 cases, 189 controls) and white (943 cases, 868 controls) women and to test for interactions by race/ethnicity. They also calculated attributable fractions within each racial/ethnic group for the modifiable factors of pregnancy, oral contraceptive use, tubal ligation, and body mass index. Many risk factors showed similar relations across racial/ethnic groups, but tubal ligation and family history of breast or ovarian cancer showed stronger associations among African Americans. Younger age at menarche was associated with risk only in white women. Attributable fractions associated with tubal ligation, oral contraceptive use, and obesity were markedly higher for African Americans. The relative importance of ovarian cancer risk factors may differ for African-American women, but conclusions were limited by the small sample. There is a clear need for further research on etiologic factors for ovarian cancer in African-American women.

African Americans; case-control studies; ovarian neoplasms

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; CI, confidence interval


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.