The Epidemiology of Breast Cancer and Its Relationship with Gender Inequality Index in Asia

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer related death in women worldwide, as well as in Asia. Gender inequality remains as a barrier to improving health status. The present study was conducted to investigate the epidemiology of women breast cancer and its relationship with the Gender Inequality Index (GII) in Asian countries 2018.METHODS: This ecological study was conducted based on the GLOBOCAN project of the World Health Organization. We assessed the correlation between GII and standardized incidence rates (SIR) of breast cancer, standardized mortality rates (SMR) of breast cancer and the mortality to incidence ratio (MIR) using SPSS software, version 18.RESULTS: A total of 911014 incidences and 310577 deaths from breast cancer were recorded in Asian countries in 2018. The 5 countries with the highest SIR were Lebanon (97.6 per 100,000), Cyprus (81.7 per 100,000), Israel (78.5 per 100,000), Syrian Arab Republic (67.3 per 100,000), and Singapore (64 per 100,000). The 5 countries with the highest SMR for breast cancer were Syrian Arab Republic (26.9 per 100,000), Lebanon (25.3 per 100,000), Pakistan23.9 per100, 000), Gaza Strip and West Bank (21.7 per 100,000), and Armenia (20.6 per 100,000). Correlation between GII and SIR was -0.30 P (0.04), the correlation between GII and SMR was -0.03 P (0.84) and the correlation between GII and MIR was 0.45 P (0.00).CONCLUSIONS: a noticeably high rates of breast cancer was observed in Lebanon. This study revealed a positive correlation between GII and MIR. The correlation between GII and SIR was negative. SMR was not significantly correlated with GII.Massage for policymakers: GII and its indicators are global measures of ecologic epidemiological studies which are directly resulted from health policies and inactions at national level and reflect countries level of advance in terms of women development. In a community, level of women development is associated with their health status. So the GII and its trend across countries, can reflect priorities in terms of making health policies and inactions related to women health at national and international levels.

Keywords:

breast cancer , gender inequality index , Asia