Eventos de vida produtores de estresse e lesões sugestivas de câncer de mama em mulheres

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the main causes of mortality among women in Brazil and the world, and the second most frequent type of neoplasia. This neoplasm is multifactorial and its origin is associated with genetic, clinical and lifestyle factors. More recently the stressors of life with omission with too much release of cortisol, with a decrease of the immunological function and the increase of the susceptibility to infections and neoplasms, such as breast cancer. This study aims to verify the association between stress-producing life events and the presence of lesions suggestive of breast cancer in women who undergo mammography in the public and private health system of Maringá, Paraná. This was a cross-sectional, exploratory study of a quantitative nature, whose sociodemographic characteristics were collected through a questionnaire adapted by the researcher and for an evaluation of the influence of stressors experienced by women in the case of a Holmes and Rahe questionnaire. The samples were formed by 365 women users of the Basic Health Units of the 15th Regional Health and a private clinic in the city of Maringá, Paraná. An analysis of the data was performed through descriptive and analytical statistics, without statistical environment R (R Development Core Team) and not SAS (Statistical Analysis System). To investigate an association between the BI-RADS and the stress scale, the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel generalized test (CMH) was applied, taking into account the BI-RADS ordinal classification scale and the stress scale classification, stratified by the system where a patient performed the test (public or private), in addition to adjusting a logistic regression model, calculating as Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval. In the present study, it was observed that as women older than 60 years presented higher BI-RADS scores, indicating a higher chance of lesions suggestive of breast cancer, in relation to those younger than 40 years. The experience of some type of stressful event was reported by 99% of the interviewed women, which is a loss of a family member and a change in the financial conditions as they are most common. Risk factors such as obesity have been identified in at least 50% of the population. Female teachers were three times more likely to present a higher BI-RADS score when compared to women who were restricted to housework. Stratifying the results according to the type of service provided, it was verified that the private health system had a higher percentage of mammograms classified as risky BI-RADS and a higher average age of women, as soon as the public health system showed lower Mammography indices suggestive of breast cancer and younger women. Although a significant number of women present at least one type of lesion and have women with scores assessed on the stress scale setting up an 80% chance of developing a disease, a search found no association between experiencing stress-producing life events and Presence of lesions suggestive of breast cancer.