Cross-sectional study on relationships between housework and cancer among adult women in urban Shanghai / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the relationships between housework and cancer among adult women in urban Shanghai. Methods: Shanghai Women's Health Study (SWHS) included 74,942 participants. Physical activity and social demographic information were collected in the baseline recruitment survey. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression analysis were conducted to describe the housework and the association with selected cancers. Results: Overall, 14 hours per week were spent in housework, and approximately 2/3 (68.3%) women reported that they were responsible for doing major part of housework. Energy expenditure from housework contributed about one a quarter of total non occupational physical activity. Housework energy expenditure was inversely associated with cancers of breast, rectum, ovarian and lung, with the odds ratios of 0.79 (95% CI 0.73, 0.87), 0.53 (95%CI 0.42, 0.70), 0.71 (95% CI 0.55, 0.95) and 0.52 (95% CI 0.36, 0.73), respectively. Stratification analysis showed that there was a dose-response relation when comparing lower and higher housework categories (Trend test, P≤0.05). The housework had no effect on cancers of colon and endometrium, with ORs of 0.85 (95% CI 0.68, 1.05) and 1.03 (95% CI0.79, 1.33). Conclusion: Housework could be one of the major part of the physical activities among adult women, and was inversely associated with commonly-seen malignant tumor such as breast cancer, etc.