INTRODUCTION
In Kenya, since 2002 to 2012 there has been a significant economic development, which has led to huge rural-urban migration and expansion of the middle class. Urbanization and economic developments have led to new and improved marketing, distribution infrastructure, which has attracted large supermarkets such as Nakumatt, Tusksys, Uchumi, Ukwala and Naivas branches across the country. Their major contribution in the food distribution is on their expansion to low income estate thereby improving access of refined and processed food suppliers, which has influenced on how Kenyans eat (Hawkes 2006). The social and economic transition, which has been taking place since 2002 through economic development policies adopted by President Mwai Kibaki’s government, as lead to the reduction of below-poverty indexes and expansion of middle class over the last decade. This has promoted new habits such as snacking on foods that are high on fat, sugar and starch. It became the norm in Kenya these ‘westernized’ habits had been highly linked to the raise of non-communicable disease such cancer in the country (Oniang’o, 2003). This review, will be carried out with a sole aim of highlighting on the impact of lifestyle changes that are occasioned by economic transition in Kenya to give a clear picture on the extent to which unhealthy behaviours and harmful exposures are voluntary as the country’s economic opportunities increase — though it is a complex issue still being explored by researchers according to (Suhrcke and Nugent 2006). Cancer is the leading cause of non-communicable disease worldwide and GLOBOCAN estimates that 12.7 million new cases of cancer occurred worldwide in 2008. According to Ferlay, Shin, and Bray (2010), indicated ...
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...ancreatic cancer risk; however, associations were positive for higher consumption levels. This collaborative-pooled analysis provided additional evidence for a positive association between heavy alcohol consumption and the risk of pancreatic cancer.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This review was carried out with a sole aim of highlighting, on the impact of lifestyle changes that were occasioned by economic transition in Kenya from 2002 to 2012 to give a clear picture on the extent to which unhealthy lifestyle changes has influenced cancer prevalence in Kenya.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To review literature on the impact of lifestyle changes in the prevalence of cancer in Kenya.
2. To compare the prevalence on cancer that is attributed to risky lifestyle factors such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, obesity, tobacco use and alcohol consumption trends in Kenya.
According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer health disparities are defined as the adverse differences between specific populations and the achievement of an optimal state of health. These population groups are categorized by geographic location, income, disability, age, education, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or race. These factors correlate with cancer mortality rates that impact specific population groups in the United States, cancer prevalence is the number of people diagnosed or living with cancer, and cancer incidence which is the number of new cancer cases in a population. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2013, there were an estimated 1,660,290 new cases of cancer and 580,350 of the new cases resulted in mortality. Individuals who have limited access to healthcare, health illiterate, and poverty stricken are more likely to develop cancer. This means a person’s socioeconomic status can determine the likelihood of their probability of developing cancer
Liver cancer is a common form of cancer that affects approximately 30,650 new individuals each year (1). The most common form of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which is more predominate in men over women. Along with gender, age also is a large role in the probability of getting HCC. Generally, most of the individuals that are diagnosed with liver cancer are 45 and older, with an average age of 63 (1). Another nonmodifiable factors that can lead to HCC is ethnicity. The risk of having liver cancer greatly increases if you are from the Pacific Islands or are an Asian American (2). Some common behavioral risk factors that can increase an individual’s change of getting HCC are alcohol consumption, type 2 diabetes, chronic viral hepatitis, and obesity (1). While all of these factors can lead to liver cancer, obesity has become more popular recently with an increase in the amount of overweight individuals. In the last decade alone, over one billion people worldwide are estimated to be overweight (5). In the research articles used, BMI was the common tool to determine if an individual was overweight or obese.
Stefani, E.D., Boffeta, P., Deneo-Pellegrini, H., Correa, P., Ronco, A.L., Brennan, P., Ferro, G., Acosta, G., and M. Mendilaharsu. 2007. Non-alcoholic beverages and risk of bladder cancer in Uruguay. BMC Cancer, 7:57.
Bruce Ames and Lois Swirsky Gold also argued that smoking cause about a third of all cancers. They underline the importance of diet by pointing out that quarter of the population eating the fewest fruits and vegetables had double the cancer incidence than those eating the most. They concluded that there is no evidence that is convinced enough saying chemical pollutants were the main cause of human cancer (Logomasini, N.A).
Though there are many types of cancers, there are four main cancers that effect today’s society. These cancers include prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and colon/rectum cancer. Of the 1,529,560 new cases of cancer in 2010, 217,730 were prostate cancer, 209,060 were female breast cancer, 222,520 were lung cancer, and 142,570 were colon/rectum cancer. The majority of people who have cancer will have one of these types of cancer.
The first independent variable, alcohol consumption per capita was found to have a negative correlation with the dependent variable cancer incident rates and a cause-and-effect- relationship. When more alcohol were consumed, the individual was less likely to get cancer. This was consistent with our hypothesis. Using red wine as an example, resveratrol in red wine is able to lower cancer incidence rates as resveratrol in red wine has anticancer properties (National Cancer Institute). However, the correlation between this pair of variable was only moderate as it only has a correlation coefficient of 0.5. The possible extraneous variables are the combined effect of tobacco and alcohol as well as gene that an individual carries.
The distribution of health is determined by a wide variety of individual, community, and national factors. There is a growing body of evidence documenting inequalities in both the distribution of health and access to health care in the United Kingdom. Lung cancer is the second most common cancer for both men and women in England (Office for National Statistics, 2013). The majority of lung cancer cases in the United Kingdom occur as a result of tobacco smoking, 80-90% of lung cancer cases can be attributed to this with only 10-20% of cases being attributed to diet and occupational exposures to carcinogens, such as radiation (Parkin, Boyd and Walker, 2011). Research also suggests that socio-economic deprivation is associated with an increased risk of developing lung cancer.
Before the mid 1990’s cancer incidence was a rare occurrence among Alaskan Native (AN) people however rates have increased drastically and is now the leading cause of death. (Kelly, Lanier, Schade, Brantley & Starkey, 2014). Alaskan Native people include indigenous Eskimo, Indian and Aleut. Some of the most leading cancers affecting AN people include: lung, colorectal, prostate and breast. Kelly et al., 2014, found that during the last 40 years lung cancer and breast cancer incidence in this population increase by 200% and colorectal cancer increased by 35%. Lung cancer is an important health issue in American Indians/ Alaska Natives (AI/AN) due to higher prevalence of daily cigarette use and efforts to reduce tobacco use lag behind other
The social and economic impact of non-shared diseases threatens progress towards sustainable development. Uncommon diseases are the leading cause of death, resulting in 16 million premature deaths each year. The four major groups of extraordinary diseases - cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory illness and chronic diabetic - account for 82% of all non-fatal deaths3. By 2025, the global economic costs of four of these groups are expected to exceed $ 51 trillion. Despite the common belief that unidentified diseases are a "disease of prosperity" affecting only the populations of rich countries, the unknown diseases do not affect people in low-income and middle-income countries. The possibility of premature deaths due to unusual diseases in a low- and middle-income country is four times higher than in high-income countries. For young people, it is important to understand non-shared diseases and their risks. Two-thirds of adult deaths are related to childhood5 or youth behavior: over 150 million young people smoke, 5 81% of young people do not get enough physical activity, 6 11.7% of teens have episodic heavy consumption and 41 million Focused behaviors and unhealthy living conditions are assured that ill-health continues to affect
Cancer may develop in the “oral cavity, throat, voice box, esophagus, liver, colon, and breasts (Alcohol Use and Cancer1).” There is a type of alcohol called Ethanol that is in some of the alcoholic drinks. The more amount of ethanol alcohol in the drink that an individual consumes, the more likely they may develop cancer. Another reason of how alcohol causes cancer is, it damages tissue in the body. “Alcohol acts as an irritant, so the damaged cells try to repair themselves by changing their DNA. This change of DNA and blood cells is a step closer to cancer. Alcohol can act as a pathway for harmful chemical like tobacco to enter the cells lining the upper digestive tract (Cancer 1).” The blend of alcohol and drugs reduces the body's ability to remove harmful chemicals from the body. Alcohol may also “lower the body's ability to absorb folate from food, which is important vitamin to keep body healthy(1).” The low levels of folate may cause a large risk of breast cancer. Breast Cancer is also caused by the high levels of estrogen and hormone from alcohol intake. Alcohol can add many more calories, which cause weight gain. The weight gain/obesity may cause cancer. This simple drink can lead to ruining someone's life
In another study, the cohort studies, they had a large group of women without breast cancer and they were asked about their dietary habits. They asked about their consumption of foods that have oils and fats. The same women were contacted years later to see how many of these women had developed breast cancer or were on the risk of having breast cancer. No one in this study reported a significant increase in these women having breast cancer with a relation to a high fat intake. All these studies were done in western countries where their usual fat intake is about 30% of the total
Nowadays days it has been seen that NCDS (non-communicable diseases) is increasing at a greater rate than in olden times. Young people in Fiji are suffering from NCDS due to unhealthy diet however, it is not the only factor that leads to NCDS. There are factors such as lack of exercise and physical inactivity, tobacco use and the harmful use of alcohol (World Health Organization, 2015). Whereas, in olden days people were more physically active for example they used to relay on farming and obtaining fresh, the use of tobacco and alcohol was limited.
Since 1979 the diagnoses of cancer have gone up nearly 20% in a generation as there is more people smoking, drinking, obesity and unfitness (theguardian website, 2011, para. 1). There has been in increase of women with the diagnosis, the diagnoses have risen up by 50% (459 per 100,00), men have risen from 20,000 to 24,000 (the guardian website, 2011, para. 2). Socioeconomic class does have an effect in some cases as cervical and lung cancers are more common in poor people while rates of breast cancer and melanoma are higher in the wealthy (ScienceDaily website, 2008, para. 1). Demographics could also have some effect as those of the wealthier group have more exposure to UV by traveling abroad for the holidays (ScienceDaily website, 2008, para. 5). In regards to smoking, deprived groups continue to smoke while the wealthier groups have quit smoking (ScienceDaily website, 2008, para. 7). Researchers have linked cancer to not only demographics, socioeconomic class but also race and
Panno, Joseph. Cancer: The Role of Genes, Lifestyle, and Environment. New York: Facts On File, 2005. Print.
Alcohol and tobacco use may lead to major health risks. Alcohol is associated with chronic liver disease, cancers, cardiovascular disease, acute alcohol poisoning, and fetal alcohol syndrome, while smoking is associated with lung disease, cancers, and cardiovascular disease. Alcohol and tobacco cause more than 80 percent of cases of mouth and throat cancer in men and more than 65 percent in women. People who smoke and drink at same time, it is dangerous to mouth and throat cancer increases dramatically. In fact, the combined risk is greater than or equal to the risk associated with alcohol multiplied by the risk associated with tobacco. The American Heart Association estimates that more than 34 percent of the United States population has some form of cardiovascular disease. First, cardiovascular disease encompasses a variety of conditions, such as heart attack, stroke, and hardenin...