Abstract B033: Breast cancer and other cause of death among adult women in rural Ethiopia: Presentation and duration of suffering using the direct sisterhood method

Background: In Ethiopia, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality among women. Studies on breast cancer death are very scarce in Ethiopia. Moreover, little is known about breast cancer compared to other causes of death in Ethiopia, particularly in a rural setting, where there is no registration about the cause of death. Hence, the present study assessed breast cancer and other deaths with a special focus on the duration of suffering in a rural setting using the direct sisterhood method.

Methods: We determined the pattern of causes of death among randomly selected adult women in rural Ethiopia. A modified standard verbal autopsy (VA) questionnaire was filled and reviewed by two independent local physicians to assign causes of death; contradicting diagnoses were reviewed by a third physician. Descriptive statistics with relative frequencies and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) on the basis of the binomial distribution were used. Duration of suffering was taken from the standard verbal autopsy questionnaire.

Result: The median age of breast cancer death was 37 years, younger than the other cause of death. Breast cancer deaths were the second leading neoplasm responsible for 2.7% of all deaths (95% CI 1.5%-3.7%) and among top five noncommunicable diseases death. The median duration of illness for breast cancer deaths, which accounted for only 2.7% of the total cause of death, was above one year. Reproductive neoplasms, breast cancer, and epilepsy were those three causes of deaths with the largest proportion of women (more than 70%) suffering for more than six months compared to all other causes of death.

Conclusion and Recommendation: Breast cancer deaths occurred in younger age groups than other causes of death. This age is considered a young age group as compared to the country overall lifespan. The very long duration of illness for a considerable number of women has practical implications to introduce palliatives care for a cancer patient. Substantial efforts need to be made to improve the prevention and control of breast cancer in order to reduce premature death of women.

Citation Format: Wondimu Ayele Manamo, Adamu Addissie Nuramo, Wienke Andreas, Fikre Enquselassi Gash, Eva J. Kantelhardt. Breast cancer and other cause of death among adult women in rural Ethiopia: Presentation and duration of suffering using the direct sisterhood method [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr B033.