Key Health4Her findings presented at the EUSOBI Congress

The latest findings in the Health4Her project were recently showcased during a poster presentation at the European Society of Breast Imaging (EUSOBI) Congress in Lisbon.

“I was thrilled to present the results from the Health4Her study at EUSOBI, which is Europe’s premier professional organisation dedicated to breast cancer imaging,” said Maroondah BreastScreen Program Manager, Michelle Giles.

“Empowering women with knowledge was a theme of the conference, and our research provides women with the opportunity to make informed decisions to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer,” she said.

There is strong evidence that alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer, even in very low amounts.

To help raise awareness of this risk and empower women to protect themselves from the harm caused by alcohol, the joint Health4Herproject from Turning Point (Eastern Health), Monash University, VicHealth and Shades of Pink, is developing an evidence-based digital preventive intervention for women attending breast screening services.

Another member of the research team, Dr Darren Lockie, Clinical Director of BreastScreen Services, Eastern Health Breast and Cancer Centre, and Chief Radiologist, Maroondah BreastScreen, Eastern Health, also attended the Congress.

“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.

Program success in reducing women’s intentions to drink alcohol

Previously, the Health4Her program has been shown to increase awareness of the increased risk of breast cancer from alcohol while also improving alcohol literacy more broadly.

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.

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,” said Senior Research Fellow Dr Jasmin Grigg, who is the lead researcher of the project.

Although the latest trial was not designed to examine change in alcohol consumption behaviour, changes in drinking frequency and drinking quantity were in the expected direction for women who received the intervention.

“We know that drinking patterns among women in midlife and older ages are substantially riskier than those of previous generations,” Dr Grigg explained.

“Recent alcohol intake is also strongly associated with breast cancer development among women in these age groups,” she said.

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.

Next steps

With such positive progress, the next stages of the project will continue to work with women in midlife and older age brackets, including those from rural and remote areas and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

This should ensure that the intervention is culturally and contextually relevant for women, and support future scale-up.

“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. 

Access the poster presentation.

A PhD Scholarship is also being offered to conduct research as part of the project supporting the implementation-effectiveness trial. Find out more.

Contact Health4Her: [email protected]

The Health4Her Project has been a collaboration between Turning Point, Monash University, Eastern Health, BreastScreen Victoria, VicHealth, Lifepool, the Eastern Health Foundation, and Shades of Pink.

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