NYU Women’s Health Study Cohort Characteristics
Women were invited to participate in the NYU Women’s Health Study cohort if they were between the ages of 35 and 65 at the time of mammographic screening. Forty-seven percent of participants were under age 50 at the time of enrollment, and 51 percent were premenopausal. Seventy-nine percent of the women in the NYU Women’s Health Study are white, 12 percent are black/African American, 6 percent are Latina, 1 percent are Asian, and 2 percent of women reported another race or ethnicity.
The following table describes the characteristics of our study cohort at enrollment.
NYU Women’s Health Study Cohort at Enrollment
| Subject Characteristics | Number (%) |
|---|---|
| Age at enrollment (years) | |
| 35–39 | 1,840 (13%) |
| 40–44 | 2,609 (18%) |
| 45–49 | 2,220 (16%) |
| 50–54 | 2,188 (15%) |
| 55–59 | 2,585 (18%) |
| 60–65 | 2,832 (20%) |
| Race or ethnicity | |
| White | 9,867 (79%) |
| Black/African American | 1,489 (12%) |
| Latina | 771 (6%) |
| Asian | 115 (1%) |
| Other | 306 (2%) |
| Highest education | |
| Some high school or less | 600 (5%) |
| Completed high school | 5,666 (49%) |
| Vocational/technical school | 332 (3%) |
| Completed college | 2,539 (22%) |
| Completed graduate school | 2,442 (21%) |
| Smoking | |
| Never | 6,075 (48%) |
| Former | 4,188 (33%) |
| Current | 2,297 (18%) |
| Exercise regularly | |
| Yes | 7,146 (50%) |
| No | 7,128 (50%) |
| Use of multivitamins | |
| Yes | 6,844 (49%) |
| No | 7,029 (51%) |
Cohort Cancer Cases by Cancer Site
In the NYU Women’s Health Study, more than 5,000 cases of cancer have been diagnosed among study participants between 1985 and 2016. The table below lists the number of cases in the cohort by cancer site. As of January 2016, 1,952 breast cancer cases, including both invasive and in situ tumors, have been diagnosed in the NYU Women’s Health Study.
Number of Incident Cases of Cancer in NYU Women’s Health Study as of 1/1/2016
| Tumor site | Number |
|---|---|
| Breast | |
| Invasive | 1,531 |
| In situ | 421 |
| Colon or rectum | 434 |
| Lung | 452 |
| Endometrium | 346 |
| Ovary | 180 |
| Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma | 227 |
| Leukemia | 179 |
| Melanoma | 378 |
| Pancreas | 128 |
| Kidney | 103 |
| Thyroid | 92 |
| Bladder | 121 |
| Brain | 40 |
| Stomach | 36 |
| Esophagus | 23 |
| Liver | 21 |
| Other | 335 |
| Total | 5,047 |
