Day 269 - 25 Jun 96 - Page 58
1 risk factor, so far as disease, socio-economic contrast,
2 were different at that time, and one of the factors which
3 may well be involved in breast cancer, and it is something
4 which I have at the back of my mind, might well be the
5 contrast in breast feeding which has made a big switch
6 between the -- there is some evidence now to suggest, for
7 example, that breast feeding is protective, and whereas at
8 the beginning, the earlier part of the century, breast
9 feeding used to be practiced more by the lower
10 socio-economic groups, it is now being practiced more by
11 the higher socio-economic groups.
12
13 It such a complex issue that I would really not like to
14 answer that question unless you had somebody here who was
15 an expert to advise us on when these insults originally
16 occurred in relation to the data that is published today.
17 There is a big time lag between the event and what we see
18 in terms of palpable breast tumours, never mind mortality,
19 which occurs much later.
20
21 Q. And two other features of the higher socio-economic classes
22 for women are, are they not, later age of first birth and
23 lower parity?
24 A. Yes.
25
26 Q. Neither of which is diet related, is it?
27 A. That is correct, that is correct. It has an influence
28 on the offspring though which is diet related, strangely
29 enough.
30
31 Q. Yes, but it is not the offspring that are getting the
32 breast cancer, I am talking about the mothers. Do the
33 British Heart Foundation statistics make adjustments for
34 smoking, drinking, physical activity and so on and so
35 forth?
36 A. Yes, I believe they do. I believe they go into
37 confounding factors for heart disease.
38
39 Q. Am I also right, I may not be because I have not looked at
40 the work, but am I also right that the lower socio-economic
41 groups smoke more?
42 A. I think that is true.
43
44 Q. That they are generally fatter?
45 A. It is actual not quite strictly true in the sense that,
46 as you descend the lower socio-economic scale, if I can use
47 that expression, that there are people at the lower end of
48 the socio-economic groups which really do not have the
49 money to burn cigarettes.
50
51 Q. Sure?
52 A. And this is true of our population in the East End of
53 London to a large extent. Quite a lot of our mothers who
54 one might have expected to be heavy smokers are not. So it
55 is not a clear-cut as one might expect.
56
57 Q. No and quite a lot of your people in, your folk in the East
58 End of London will be Muslim Bangladeshi's?
59 A. Indeed, some of them are. Although not in our area as
60 it happens.
