other <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">Introduction:</span></span></b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black"> Food insecurity has emerged as a significant public health concern worldwide, yet its association with breast cancer (BC) incidence remains understudied, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like Iran. </span></span></span></span><br> <span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">Methods and Materials:</span></span></b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black"> This cross-sectional study utilized electronic healthcare data from Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, aggregated at the city level across the population covered by Mashhad University in Iran in 2022. Age-standardized incidence rates of BC in each city served as the primary outcome variable. A multivariable linear regression model was constructed with age-standardized BC incidence rate as the dependent variable and food insecurity, mean age, obesity, diabetes, smoking, and total fertility rate as independent predictor variables. </span></span></span></span><br> <span style="unicode-bidi:embed"><span style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">Results:</span></span></b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black"> Higher levels of food insecurity were associated with lower age-standardized BC incidence rates (&beta; = -0.0103; 95% CI: -0.0147, -0.0059; <i>p</i> = 0.001) after adjusting for mean age, obesity, diabetes, smoking prevalence, and total fertility rate. Obesity (&beta; = 0.9460; 95% CI: 0.7312, 1.1608; <i>p</i> = 0.001) and smoking prevalence (&beta; = 0.3899; 95% CI: 0.2751, 0.5047; <i>p</i> = 0.001) were positively associated with BC incidence. However, diabetes prevalence (&beta; = -2.4594; 95% CI: -3.0742, -1.8446; <i>p</i> = 0.001) and total fertility rate (&beta; = -8.5297; 95% CI: -10.6775, -6.3819; <i>p</i> = 0.001) showed inverse associations. </span></span></span></span><br> <b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">Conclusion and Discussion: </span></span></b><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black">This ecological study demonstrated the association of higher levels of food insecurity with lower age-standardized BC incidence rates in Razavi Khorasan province, Iran. These findings highlight the importance of addressing social determinants like food insecurity in cancer prevention and control strategies, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.</span></span><br> <br> <img alt="" src="./files/site1/images/888.jpg" style="width: 1000px; height: 36px;" ></span></span></div> Food insecurity, Breast neoplasms, Iran 375 375 http://ibj.pasteur.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-4696-395&slc_lang=other&sid=1 Iman Mousaei No Amin Moradi No Ali Taghipour No Maryam Salari No Ehsan Mosafarkhani Yes