The Health of Women (HOW) Study®: a web-based survey of breast cancer risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment

Purpose Although improvements in breast cancer detection and treatment have significantly increased survival, important questions related to breast cancer risk, prognosis, and survivorship remain. This brief report describes the Health of Women (HOW) Study® methodology and characterizes the participants who completed the My Health Overview and My Breast Cancer modules. Methods The HOW Study® was a collection of cross-sectional, web-based modules designed to survey a large number of participants with and without breast cancer. Results A total of 42,540 participants completed the My Health Overview module, of whom 13,285 (31.2%) reported a history of breast cancer. The majority of participants were white (94.3%), female (99.5%), married (74.1%), college educated (73.2%), post-menopausal (91.1%), parous (68.8%), and reported breastfeeding their children (56.0%). A total of 11,670 participants reported a history of breast cancer in the My Breast Cancer module. The majority of survivors reported on their primary breast cancer and were diagnosed over the age of 40 years (83.5%), had either Stage I or Stage II breast cancer (63.1%), and were treated with surgery (98.8%), radiation (64.8%), and/or chemotherapy (62.3%). Conclusions The HOW Study® provides an innovative framework for collecting large amounts of epidemiological data in an efficient and minimally invasive way. Data are publicly available to researchers upon request. Implications for Cancer Survivors The HOW Study® can be leveraged to answer important questions about survivorship, and researchers are encouraged to utilize this new data source.