Recent global research shows that women need more cancer testing. This relates to getting patients to follow medical advice.
WHO Findings: Women Need More Cancer Testing
According to Hologic:
Cancer remains one of the most frightening health challenges women face. To fight this threat and improve outcomes for women, healthcare leaders worldwide must better understand women’s real-world experiences. Especially when it comes to screening and treatment. The Hologic Global Women’s Health Index targets women’s perspectives. And provides robust, self-reported quality data that can drive improvement in healthcare for women.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. Accounting for an estimated 10 million deaths in 2020. This number continues to increase. AS the Breast Cancer Research Foundation states. “Globally, breast cancer now represents one in four of all cancers in women. Since 2008, worldwide breast cancer incidence increased by more than 20%. Mortality increased by 14%.”
The right test — at the right time — can make a significant difference in whether women will live or die. Because testing is the essential first step toward fighting cancer and other diseases, the Index asked women whether they had been tested in the past 12 months for four of the most life-threatening diseases for women globally: high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, and sexually transmitted diseases, and infections.
Worldwide, just 12% of women said in 2020 that they received testing for any cancer in the past 12 months. But numbers were in the single digits in 40 countries and territories. Fewer than 1% of women in Pakistan, where breast cancer statistics are the highest in Asia, said they were tested. There is no organized screening program for breast cancer in Pakistan. Which makes early detection nearly impossible. Women in South Korea were the most likely in the world to say they had undergone a cancer screening, with 37% saying they had in the past 12 months.
