Why Zero Breast Cancer Focuses on Kids' Health
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- Published: Monday, 10 October 2022 15:27
Zero Breast Cancer's Healthy Futures Activity Book empowers kids ages 5-7 to improve their own health and gives caregivers tools to support healthy behaviors. Kids complete one activity in each of four key areas (move more, eat healthy, get enough sleep, and feel better) to receive a patch or zipper pull as a prize.
While the Healthy Futures program focuses on healthy behaviors and does not bring up puberty or breast cancer, its goal is to reduce the risk of early puberty and lifetime breast cancer risk. Healthy behaviors before puberty reduce the likelihood of early puberty in cis-gendered girls, which decreases their lifetime breast cancer risk. When healthy behaviors are maintained while breasts are developing, it reduces lifetime breast cancer risk, too. Although breast cancer is most common in cis-gender women, this program was designed for kids of all genders so that it can be used in mixed-gender groups and because any person can get breast cancer.