- among Taiwanese women: a case-control study

Authors Shih YW, Hung CS , Huang CC , Chou KR , Niu SF, Chan S , Tsai HT 

Received 16 June 2020

Accepted for publication 18 September 2020

Published 29 October 2020 Volume 2020:12 Pages 10799—10807

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/CMAR.S267415

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2

Editor who approved publication: Professor Harikrishna Nakshatri

 

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Ya-Wen Shih, 1 Chin-Sheng Hung, 2, 3 Cheng-Chiao Huang, 4 Kuei-Ru Chou, 1, 5– 7 Shu-Fen Niu, 8, 9 Sally Chan, 10 Hsiu-Ting Tsai 1, 8

1School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City, Taiwan; 4Division of Breast Surgery, Department of Surgery, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 5Center for Nursing and Healthcare Research in Clinical Practice Application, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; 6Department of Nursing, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan; 7Psychiatric Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 8Post-Baccalaureate Program in Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; 9Department of Nursing, Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 10UON Singapore Campus, Univesrity of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Correspondence: Hsiu-Ting Tsai Email [email protected]

Introduction: Breast cancer is a common malignancy worldwide. Smartphones have gradually become indispensable to our modern lives and have already changed lifestyles of human beings. To our best knowledge, no study has investigated the relationship between smartphone use and breast cancer. This case-control study purposely investigated the relationship between smartphone use and breast cancer risk.
Materials and Methods: This was a case-control study comprising 894 healthy controls and 211 patients with breast cancer. All participants were asked to respond to standard questionnaires to collect information on sleep quality, smartphone addiction, and smartphone use.
Results: Participants with smartphone addiction had a significantly higher 1.43-fold risk of breast cancer. Individuals with the habitual behavior of smartphone use > 4.5 minutes before bedtime had a significantly increased 5.27-fold risk of breast cancer compared to those who used a smartphone for ≤ 4.5 minutes before bedtime. Additionally, a closer distance between the smartphone and the breasts when using the smartphone exhibited a significantly increased 1.59-fold risk. Participants who carried their smartphone near their chest or waist-abdomen area had significantly increased 5.03-fold and 4.06-fold risks of breast cancer, respectively, compared to those who carried the smartphone below the waist. Moreover, there was a synergistic effect of smartphone addiction and smartphone use of > 4.5 minutes before bedtime which increased the breast cancer risk.
Conclusion: Excessive smartphone use significantly increased the risk of breast cancer, particularly for participants with smartphone addiction, a close distance between the breasts and smartphone, and the habit of smartphone use before bedtime.