Wednesday, September 21, 2011

[EQ] The Challenge Ahead: Progress and Setbacks in Breast and Cervical Cancer

The Challenge Ahead: Progress and Setbacks in Breast and Cervical Cancer

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

Policy report available online at: http://bit.ly/ohHCMS

Breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis
Mohammad H Forouzanfar a, Kyle J Foreman a, Allyne M Delossantos a, Prof Rafael Lozano a, Prof Alan D Lopez b, Prof, Dr Christopher J L Murray a , Mohsen Naghavi a
a Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
b University of Queensland, School of Population Health, Herston, QLD, Australia

The Lancet, 15 September 2011- doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61351-
Link to the paper: http://bit.ly/qoPn4x

“……The IHME policy report The Challenge Ahead: Progress and Setbacks in Breast and Cervical Cancer outlines global, regional, and country trends in cancer cases, deaths, and risks over the past three decades.

This is the first global assessment of country-specific trends in breast and cervical cancer for all countries by age, and the findings were simultaneously published in The Lancet on September 15, 2011.

The research shows the number of cases and deaths from breast and cervical cancer are rising in most countries, especially in the developing world where more women are dying at younger ages. For breast cancer, cases more than doubled around the world in just three decades, a pace that far exceeds global population growth. During the same period, breast cancer deaths increased at a slower rate than cases, reducing the risk of death for women in developed countries, and indicating that screening and treatment programs are having an impact.

On the other hand, cervical cancer cases and deaths increased overall at nearly the same pace, with 76% of new cases occurring in developing regions. If current trends continue, within the next two decades women under 50 will die as often from breast and cervical cancer as from maternal causes in developing countries.

Given these trends, the report lays out recommendations for policymakers, including gathering more data through expanded cancer registries, implementing new techniques in verbal autopsy where countries lack vital registration systems, conducting further studies on health policies to understand why the progress in some countries is not shared by others, and implementing further cancer control strategies. …..”

Content:

- Making breast and cervical cancer a reproductive health priority

- Breast cancer cases rise, but deaths increase at a slower pace

- Cervical cancer cases increase with little progress in reducing deaths

- Changing cancer’s course globally

- Regional overviews

- Country data

- References

The work was funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Report Content

Regional Overviews (5.3MB pdf*)
Country Data (101KB pdf*)
References (76KB pdf*)
Full Report (16.4MB pdf*) – 82 pages

William Heisel Assistant Director for External Relations

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation | University of Washington

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[EQ] From burden to best buys: Reducing the economic impact of NCDs in low- and middle-income countries

From burden to "best buys":
Reducing the economic impact of NCDs in low- and middle-income countries

Summary: World Health Organization, September 2011

New WHO study details low-cost solutions to help curb the tide on noncommunicable diseases

Strategies to prevent and treat cancer, heart disease, diabetes and lung disease for just US$ 1.20 per person per year

Available online PDF file at: http://bit.ly/r7ZYS0

“……- A new WHO study reveals that low-income countries could introduce a core set of strategies to prevent and treat cancer, heart disease, diabetes and lung disease for just US$ 1.20 per person per year.

The impact of noncommunicable diseases - or NCDs - goes beyond health: their socioeconomic effects are staggering. The cost of not taking action to address this global threat is already severe and will intensify over time.

"Noncommunicable diseases are one of the leading threats to global economic growth and development. Over the next 15 years, noncommunicable diseases will cost low- and middle-income countries' more than US$ 7 trillion," says Jean Pierre Rosso, Chairman, World Economic Forum (WEF), quoting the results of a WEF and Harvard School of Public Health study released today. "When so many of the workforce is sick and dies in their productive years, national economies lose billions of dollars in output. And millions of families are pushed into poverty."

Low-cost interventions

The list includes measures that target the population as a whole, such as excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol, smoke-free indoor workplaces and public places, health information and warnings, as well as campaigns to reduce salt content and replacement of trans fats with polyunsaturated fats, along with public awareness programmes about diet and physical activity.

Other tactics focus on the individual. These include screening, counselling and drug therapy for people with or at high risk of cardiovascular disease, screening for cervical cancer, and hepatitis B immunization to prevent liver cancer.

Many countries have already adopted these approaches, and have seen a marked reduction in disease incidence and mortality. WHO monitored progress over ten years in 38 countries taking steps to address cardiovascular disease at both the population and individual level: all recorded a substantial decrease in exposure to risk, incidence of disease and deaths. …”

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[EQ] World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development

World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development

The World Bank, September 2011

Available online at: http://bit.ly/n28pnv

“…..The lives of girls and women have changed dramatically over the past quarter century. The pace of change has been astonishing in some areas, but in others, progress toward gender equality has been limited—even in developed countries.

This year's World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development argues that gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. It is also smart economics. Greater gender equality can enhance productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions more representative.

The Report also focuses on four priority areas for policy going forward:

(i) reducing excess female mortality and closing education gaps where they remain,

(ii) improving access to economic opportunities for women

(iii) increasing women's voice and agency in the household and in society and

(iv) limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations….”

Content:

Complete Report
World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development (19MB, pdf) Issuu

Main Messages (multilingual)
Overview (multilingual)
Introduction - A guide to the Report (1.0MB, pdf)

Download by Chapter: The Report has nine chapters in three parts.

Part I Taking stock of gender equality

Presents the facts that will then provide the foundation for the rest of the Report. It combines existing and new data to document changes in key dimensions of gender equality over the past quarter century and across regions and countries.

Its main message is that very rapid and, in some cases, unprecedented progress has been made in some dimensions of gender equality (chapter 1), but that it has not reached all women or been uniform across all dimensions of gender equality (chapter 2).

Download:
Chapter 1: A Wave of progress (913KB, pdf)
Chapter 2: The persistence of gender inequality (1.2MB, pdf)
Spread 1: Women's pathways to empowerment: Do all roads lead to Rome? (219KB, pdf)

Part II What has driven progress? What impedes it?

The contrast between the patterns and trends described in the first two chapters of the Report prompts one to ask what explains the progress or lack of it. Part 2—constitutes the analytical core of the Report. It presents the conceptual framework and uses it to examine the factors that have fostered change and the constraints that have slowed progress.

The analysis focuses on gender differences in education and health (chapter 3), agency (chapter 4), and access to economic opportunities (chapter 5)—discussing the roles of economic growth, households, markets, and institutions in determining outcomes in these three spheres. Part 2 concludes with a discussion of the impact of globalization on gender inequality, paying attention to the opportunities and challenges created by new economic and social trends (chapter 6).

The analysis in these four chapters leads to the identification of four priority areas for action: reducing gender gaps in human capital endowments, promoting higher access to economic opportunities among women, closing gender gaps in household and societal voice, and limiting the intergenerational reproduction of gender inequality.

Download:
Chapter 3: Education and health: Where do gender differences really matter? (4.7MB, pdf)
Chapter 4: Promoting women's agency (3.0MB, pdf)
Spread 2: The decline of the breadwinner: Men in the 21st century (175KB, pdf)
Chapter 5: Gender differences in employment and why they matter (4.9MB, pdf)
Chapter 6: Globalization's impact on gender equality: What's happened and what's needed (1.0MB, pdf)
Spread 3: Changing ages, changing bodies, changing times—Adolescent boys and girls (177KB.pdf)

Part III The role of and potential for public action

Presents policy recommendations, examines the political economy of reforms for gender equality, and proposes a global agenda for action. The discussion starts with a detailed description of policy options addressing the four priority areas, complemented with concrete illustrations of successful interventions in different contexts (chapter 7).

An examination of the political economy of gender reforms follows, with an emphasis on the issues that distinguish reform in this area from other types of redistributive or equality-enhancing reforms (chapter 8). Global action on gender equality should focus on complementing country efforts on the four priority areas identified in the Report (chapter 9).

Download:
Chapter 7: Public action for gender equality (1.0MB, pdf)
Chapter 8: The political economy of gender reform (1.1MB, pdf)
Chapter 9: A global agenda for greater gender equality (522KB, pdf)

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