Friday November 1, 2024
New study findings of the Health4Her project, show digital preventive intervention implemented in the breast screening setting, successfully reduces women’s intentions to drink alcohol.
Joint project partners Turning Point (Eastern Health), Monash University, VicHealth and Shades of Pink, took the new study findings to the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI) Congress in Lisbon.
Clinical Director of BreastScreen Services, Eastern Health Breast and Cancer Centre, and Chief Radiologist, Maroondah BreastScreen, Eastern Health, Dr Darren Lockie wants to raise awareness of the risks and empower women to protect themselves from the harm caused by alcohol.
There is strong evidence that alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer, even in very low amounts.
“With the increasing focus on personalised breast screening, it is becoming apparent that modifiable lifestyle choices such as alcohol consumption, exercise and diet are as important as non-modifiable risk factors in helping women assess their level of risk,” Dr Lockie said.
The project is an animation, including brief alcohol intervention and lifestyle health promotion. During the latest stage of the project, an automated self-completed version of the program was co-designed with breast screening service consumers from Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s Lifepool cohort.
Lead researcher of Health4Her and Senior Research Fellow Dr Jasmin Grigg said that in addition to demonstrating benefits in increasing women’s literacy regarding alcohol and breast cancer, the new version was also effective in reducing women’s intentions to drink alcohol.
“This finding is significant because change in behavioural intentions is a key step in the process of changing behaviour.
“We know that drinking patterns among women in midlife and older ages are substantially riskier than those of previous generations.
“Recent alcohol intake is also strongly associated with breast cancer development among women in these age groups,” Dr Grigg explained.
By raising awareness of the alcohol-breast cancer link, the intervention aims to empower this large population of women to make informed decisions about their health.
“Ultimately, we hope to expand the program so that it is available to all women attending breast screening Australia-wide, to raise awareness of the strong link between alcohol use and breast cancer, and support women to keep their drinking in a low-risk range,” Dr Grigg said.