Conducting Molecular Epidemiological Research in the Age of HIPAA: A Multi-Institutional Case-Control Study of Breast Cancer in African-American and European-American Women

Table 2

Characteristics of 858 controls.

	African American		European American
	𝑁 (412)	%	𝑁 (446)	%
Age at interview
<35	21	5.1	22	4.9
35–39	21	5.1	37	8.3
40–49	119	28.9	127	28.5
50–59	172	41.8	194	43.5
60–64	73	17.7	61	13.7
65+	6	1.5	5	1.1
Country of origin^1
United States and Canada	280	68.0	390	87.4
Caribbean countries	63	15.3	0	0
Other	69	16.7	56	12.6
Marital status^1
Married	143	34.9	277	62.1
Living as married	15	3.7	19	4.3
Widowed	21	5.1	17	3.8
Separated	34	8.3	15	3.4
Divorced	70	17.1	48	10.8
Single, never married or never lived as married	127	31.0	70	15.7
Highest grade of school completed^1
Less than 11th grade	52	12.6	7	1.6
High school graduate or equivalent	91	22.1	30	6.7
Some college	128	31.1	87	19.5
College graduate	86	20.9	156	35.0
Post-graduate degree	55	13.4	166	37.2
Health insurance (multiple choices possible)
Medicaid^1	70	17.0	17	3.8
Medicare^1	17	4.1	7	1.6
Employer-provided insurance^1	272	66.2	350	78.5
Pay for insurance out of pocket^1	18	4.4	49	11.0
I do not have health insurance	29	7.0	23	5.2
Other	13	3.2	21	4.7
Annual income^1
Less than $15 000	51	13.4	15	3.6
$15 000–19 999	30	7.9	9	2.2
$20 000–24 999	25	6.5	5	1.2
$25 000–34 999	48	12.6	19	4.6
$35 000–49 999	68	17.8	42	10.2
$50 000–69 999	60	15.7	53	12.9
$70 000–89 999	45	11.8	61	14.8
$90 000 or more	55	14.4	208	50.5
BMI^1
Underweight	3	0.8	14	3.5
Normal	68	17.7	188	46.3
Overweight	115	30.0	100	24.6
Obese	198	51.6	104	25.6
Age at menarche
<11	40	9.7	39	8.8
11-12	71	17.3	69	15.6
12-13	90	21.9	112	25.3
13-14	99	24.1	124	28.0
14+	111	27.0	99	22.4
Number of pregnancies^1
No pregnancies	36	9.9	91	23.4
1 pregnancy	89	24.4	90	23.1
2 pregnancies	103	28.2	126	32.4
3 pregnancies	74	20.3	56	14.4
4 pregnancies	31	8.5	8	2.1
5 + pregnancies	32	8.8	18	4.6
Age at first pregnancy^1
≤19	115	35.5	18	6.1
20–24	107	33.0	65	22.0
25–29	50	15.4	80	27.0
30+	52	16.1	133	44.9
Age at menopause^1
Premenopausal	114	32.4	158	38.7
Perimenopausal	104	29.6	117	28.7
≤44	26	7.4	13	3.2
45–49	44	12.5	31	7.6
50+	64	18.2	89	21.8
Ever have hormone replacement therapy?^1
Yes	63	15.4	105	23.6
No	347	84.6	340	76.4
Ever have a screening mammogram?
Yes	353	86.1	388	87.0
No	57	13.9	58	13.0

¹P < .05, Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test, as appropriate, for differences between AAs and EAs.