Mastalgia and associated factors: A case control study
Background: patients with breast pain are often referred to surgery department. The present study was conducted to determine the factors associated with Mastalgia among women attending a tertiary care hospital Methods: This case control study was conducted on 120 women between the age 18 to 65 in the department of General surgery. The study included case subjects (n = 50) with Mastalgia and the control subjects (n = 50) without Mastalgia. The severity of breast pain was calculated with visual analog scale. questionnaire was given to all the participants and data is collected. Data was analysed by SPSS version 16 and P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant value. Results: Among those who had experienced mastalgia, 76% (46) had cyclical mastalgia and 24% (14) had non-cyclical mastalgia. The mean of pain score was 4.72 ± 2.28 and most of the women(18%) had pain score of “6” which is moderate pain The mean age and Body mass index were higher in the case group than control group (p<0.005). Stressful lifestyle, caffeine consumption, smoking, higher BMI and higher breast-fed infants were significantly associated with mastalgia (p < 0.001). postmenopausal women have decreased frequency of mastalgia which is significantly associated with mastalgia (p < 0.001). Conclusion: age, BMI, Stress, caffeine, smoking, lactation frequency, menopause state were found to be related with mastalgia.