The Epidemiology of Breast Cancer and Its Relationship with Human Development Index in Asia in 2018

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer related death in women worldwide, as well as in Asia. The human development index (HDI) indicates that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. This study was conducted to investigate the epidemiology of women breast cancer and its relationship with HDI in Asian countries 2018.Methods: This ecological study was conducted based on cancer data abstracted from GLOBOCAN projections and UNDP data on HDI.Results: A total of 911014 incidences of 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), Pakistan (23.9 per100, 000), Gaza Strip and West Bank (21.7 per 100,000), and Armenia (20.6 per 100,000). Correlation between HDI and SIR was 0.51 P (0.00), the correlation between HDI and SMR was -0.03 P (0.80) and the correlation between HDI and MIR was -0.78 P (0.000).Conclusions: a noticeably high rate of breast cancer was observed in Lebanon. This study also revealed a negative correlation between HDI and MIR. The correlation between HDI and SIR was positive and SMR was not significantly correlated with HDI.Massage for policy maker: HDI 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 human development. In a community, level of human development is associated with health status. So the HDI and its trend across countries, can reflect priorities in terms of making health policies and inactions related to health status at national and international levels.

Keywords:

breast cancer , human development index , Asia