Comparison of the Body Mass Index of Women with Hypo- and Macro-mastia-MDbP303 / 한국유방암학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to determine if the body shape of women with small breasts differed from that of women with large breasts. METHODS: Between January 2002 and June 2006, 461 patients with hypomastia and 104 patients with macromastia, who had visited the M.D. Clinic, Seoul, Korea, were evaluated. These two groups were further divided into three groups (Group 1; underweight BMI or =23) according to Body mass index (BMI). RESULTS: The average age of women with hypomastia and macromastia was 32 and 34.5 respectively. The average BMI was 18.88 in the hypomastia group and 22.19 in the macromastia group (p<0.001). In the hypomastia group, the distribution of BMI was as follows group 1, 44.5% (n=205); group 2, 53.8% (n=248); group 3, 1.7% (n=8). However, in the macromastia group, a higher proportion of overweight individuals were observed, as shown by the following distribution pattern group 1, 7.7% (n=8); group 2, 71.1% (n=32); group 3, 27.3% (n=3). In the hypomastia group, the proportion of group 3 were 0% in their 20s, 0.9% (n=2) in their 30s, 6% (n=3) in their 40s and 27.3% (n=3) in their 50s, but in the macromastia group, the proportion of group 3 were 17.8% (n=8) in 20s, 32% (n=8) in 30s, 50% (n=12) in 40s and 100% (n=10) in 50s. CONCLUSION: The BMI of women with macromastia was significantly higher than that of women with hypomastia. In addition, although BMI was found to increase as age advanced for both groups, women with macromastia appear to have a strong tendency to become overweight with age.