According to the article, cervical cancer is the number two leading cause of emerging cancer cases and deaths associated with cancer amongst Indian women. This has been contributed by the low investments done by the government towards health infrastructure, limited treatments, late diagnosis and above all shallow coverage of the screening services. On the basis of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare endorsed cervical screening to women under the range of 30-65 years. The screening was to be conducted by visual inspection through acetic acid for an interval of 5 years for the women in the stipulated year range. A survey was conducted and later analyzed to approximate the number of women who had not yet been screened for cervical cancer between the ages of 30-49 years in the aim of creating a standard for cervical cancer screening (Van et al., 2019).
Fourth National Health Survey was nationally conducted from the years 2015 to 2016 in every demographic part in India of which included 699,686 women with ages of 15-49 years. The survey’s core inquiry was on the cervix examination, and the uncertain numbers of those reported as screened and their utmost confidence intervals calculated. From the study, 336,777 aged 30-49 years reported as screened with the prevalence increasing with the women’s educational status and their partners as well. 24.7% was from women with no formal education, 26.3% of those with partners lacking the same formal education. On the other hand, 37.1% was reported by women who had formal education or rather completed grade 12, and 36.9% to those whom their partners had the formal education. Additionally, the screening prevalence was also determined by the marital status, financial status, religious backgrounds, tribal groups, and geographical locations.
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High screening prevalence was observed in urban areas and to those with higher education levels as well as their partners. Evidently, the mortality rate of cervical cancer in India has reduced by an approximate of 30% due to the available screening programs. This has created attention towards the clinical approach of visual inspection with acetic acid alongside WHO guidelines for countries that lack cervical screening programs such as human papillomavirus testing. In conclusion, the study from the article points out that the findings from the baseline cervical cancer screening estimates, can be used for programmatic rollout, program evaluation and implementation benchmarks for women with the ages between 30-49 years for cervical cancer.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is mainly caused by tobacco smoking, a respiratory condition well known due to its high mortality and morbidity in the United States. Yet, the disease has been diagnosed with 24% of people with COPD who have not smoked at any given time. For the non-smokers, the disease can be reflected back to the work environment and specifically the workplace exposures that include vapors, gases, dust, and passive smoking. CDC analyzed 2013-2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data in the motive of assessing the industry and occupation-specific prevalence among the adults above 18 years and who had not smoked for at least one year, and employed at the same period. Out of 106 million workers used for the study, 2.4 million (2.2%) people had COPD but were non-smokers. The highest prevalence was among the adults above 65 years (4.6%), women 3.0% and those with poor health 6.7%. In the workplaces, the highest prevalence was in the information industry and office and administrative support occupation with a 3.3%. This showed that the significance of continued surveillance and early detection of COPD is outweighed by the high COPD prevalence in certain industries for non-smokers.
Annually, personal interviews that focused on medical history were conducted to a representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized US. Population from 2013-2017. Data collected were analyzed using SAS. For those who never smoked and those who reported an earlier diagnosis of emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and COPD diagnosis were evaluated separately. Amongst women, the highest prevalence’s were to those that worked in the transportation and material moving profession with 4.5% and the information industry with 5.1%. The highest COPD prevalence in men was in forestry, hunting, fishing and agriculture 2.3%, entertainment, arts and recreation 2.3%, protective service profession 2.3%.
From the study results, an estimated 26-53% of COPD victims have been caused by work-related exposures and mainly dust and toxins. Additionally, genetic factors, biologic and social differences have also attributed to the increased risk for COPD among persons whom on no occasion smoked. This translates to the importance of identifying work-related risk factors in order to reduce and prevent COPD among the employed. The article also implies that women who had never smoked had higher COPD prevalences than men irrespective of their sociodemographic features. Variations were also observed within ethnicity, sex and race groups (Syamla et al., 2019).
It has been shown by the national surveys that contact with chemical substances and dusts have increased the risk of COPD illnesses and deaths among individuals who have never smoked. Despite the few limitations of the study, the discoveries of high COPD prevalences among non-smoking employees relate to the discoveries of occupational exposures to the smoking of which might be linked with an increase of COPD. Conclusively, identification of work-related risk factors is crucial for reducing and preventing morbidity and mortality among workers.
References
Syamla G., Doney B., Mazurek JM. (2019). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease prevalence among adults who have never smoked. Industry and Occupation - United States . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 68:303-307.
Van Dyne EA, Hallowell BD, Saraiya M, et al. (2019). Establishing baseline cervical cancer screening coverage – India. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 68: 14-19.
