Assessing both education and occupation, improves the description of social class inequalities in dietary habits, as they act, most of the time, as independent factors.

Objective and methods: The desired weights and dieting behavior of a sample of 1,053 women aged 30–74 years in the general population of Geneva, Switzerland, were explored by means of a questionnaire. Multivariate analyses of variance were performed. Results: Twenty‐five percent of the women were satisfied with their weight, whereas 71% wanted to be thinner, although 73% of them were at normal weight. Among women older than 65 years, 62% wanted to lose weight, 65% of them being at normal weight. For women wanting to lose weight, mean desired weight loss amounted to 9% of their current weight. Weight dissatisfaction increased with higher education (p < .001), and with increasing current weight (p < .001). Within the last 5 years, 42% of the women had dieted for weight control, including 67% at normal weight. Thirty‐one percent of the women older than 65 years had also dieted, 62% of them being at normal weight. Discussion: A majority of middle‐age and ageing women in this general population sample expressed dissatisfaction about their weight. Many attempted dieting, even when they were at normal weight. Considering the vulnerability of the elderly to nutritional deficiencies, dieting to lose weight in normal weight ageing women should be discouraged or closely monitored. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 23:287–294, 1998.

Studies on passive smoking have consistently shown a tendency toward an increased risk of breast cancer, while studies on active smoking have failed to demonstrate an association. This apparent contradiction may stem from not separating passive smokers from the unexposed when assessing the effect of active smoking. A population-based case-control study was conducted in Geneva, Switzerland, between January 1992 and October 1993 to determine the relation of passive and active smoking to breast cancer when the referent unexposed category consisted of women unexposed to active and passive smoke. The 244 patients with breast cancer (cases) were compared with 1,032 women free of breast cancer (controls). The lifetime history of active and passive smoking was recorded year by year, between the age of 10 years and the date of the interview. The adjusted odds ratios of breast cancer for ever active smokers, compared with women unexposed to either passive or active smoke, were 2.2 (95% confidence interval (Cl) 1.0-4.4) for an average lifetime consumption of 1-9 cigarettes per day, 2.7 (95% Cl 1.4-5.4) for 10-19 cigarettes per day, and 4.6 (95% Cl 2.2-9.7) for 20 or more cigarettes per day. Among passive smokers, the adjusted odds ratio was 3.2 (95% Cl 1.6-6.3) for being exposed for the equivalent of 2 hours per day for 25 years. The odds ratios were adjusted for known or postulated risk factors of breast cancer, including alcohol and saturated fat intake. There was no evidence of strong selection, detection, or recall biases. Active and passive exposure to tobacco smoke may increase the risk of breast cancer. Additional studies are needed to decide whether the association is causal. Further elucidation of this relation would benefit not only the prevention of breast cancer but also the prevention of other smoking-related diseases in women. Am J Epidemiol 1996;143:918-28. breast neoplasms; environmental pollution; smoking; tobacco smoke pollutionIn the absence of identified preventable risk factors for breast cancer and given the large prevalence of exposure to both active and passive smoking in the female population of most countries, the potential relation of smoking with breast cancer is worth studying with great care. A recent report suggests that active smoking may be a strong risk factor among women who are slow acetylators (1). These women may be highly susceptible to compounds of tobacco smoke that have been shown to be carcinogenic in animals (2, 3).The relation of active smoking to breast cancer has been investigated in large and well-conducted studies (4-24). Overall, the association has been found to be either weakly positive (7,9,11,13,15,17,20,22,23)

OBJECTIVES: The present study sought to formulate a precise definition of sedentarism and to identify activities performed by active people that could serve as effective preventive goals. METHODS: A population-based sample of 919 residents of Geneva, Switzerland, aged 35 to 74 years, completed a 24-hour recall. Sedentary people were defined as those expending less than 10% of their daily energy in the performance of moderate- and high-intensity activities (at least 4 times the basal metabolism rate). RESULTS: The rates of sedentarism were 79.5% in men and 87.2% in women. Among sedentary and active men, average daily energy expenditures were 2600 kcal (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2552, 2648) and 3226 kcal (95% CI = 3110, 3346), respectively; the corresponding averages for women were 2092 kcal (95% CI = 2064, 2120) and 2356 kcal (95% CI = 2274, 2440). The main moderate- and high-intensity activities among active people were sports (tennis, gymnastics, skiing), walking, climbing stairs, gardening, and (for men only) occupational activities. CONCLUSIONS: The definition of sedentarism outlined in this article can be reproduced in other populations, allows comparisons across studies, and provides preventive guidelines in that the activities most frequently performed by active people are the ones most likely to be adopted by their sedentary peers.