Abstract
This study aimed to analyse the correlation between cancer incidence and mortality and the Human Development Index (HDI) in Africa. Furthermore, to analyse the variations in cancer Mortality to Incidence Ratio (MIR) based on health care systems in African countries.
Cancer incidence and mortality data for 53 countries were obtained from GLOBOCAN database. Country-wise data on National-HDI were obtained from Human Development Report 2015. Health System Attainment (HSA) data were acquired from World Health Report 2000. The parametric data were analysed by Pearson-correlation and Linear-regression analysis for the effect of HDI and HSA on MIR in African Countries. One-way ANOVA was used to test the differences of MIR in each HDI group. All analyses were performed in SPSS version 20.
An inverse correlation was revealed by cancer MIR with both HDI (r=-0.897, p<0.001) and HSA (r=-0.750, p<0.001). A significantly low MIR was reported from high HDI countries compared to medium and low HDI countries by one-way ANOVA analysis (p<0.001). Linear regression analysis also reported a negative effect of MIR with both HDI (adjusted R=0 0.801, β=-0.897, p<0.001) and HSA (adjusted R=0.554, β=-0.750, p<0.001).