BackgroundBreast cancer (breast Ca) is recognised as a major public health problem in the world. Data on reproductive factors associated with breast Ca in the Central African Republic (CAR) is very limited. This study aimed to identify reproductive variables as risk factors for breast Ca in CAR women.MethodsA case–control study was conducted among 174 cases of breast Ca confirmed at the Pathology Unit of the National Laboratory in Bangui between 2003 and 2015 and 348 age-matched controls. Data collection tools included a questionnaire, interviews and a review of medical records of patients. Data were analysed using SPSS software version 20. Odd ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the likelihood of developing breast Ca were obtained using unconditional logistic regression.ResultsIn total, 522 women with a mean age of 45.8 (SD = 13.4) years were enrolled. Women with breast Ca were more likely to have attained little or no education (AOR = 11.23, CI: 4.65–27.14 and AOR = 2.40, CI: 1.15–4.99), to be married (AOR = 2.09, CI: 1.18–3.71), to have had an abortion (AOR = 5.41, CI: 3.47–8.44), and to be nulliparous (AOR = 1.98, CI: 1.12–3.49). Decreased odds of breast Ca were associated with being employed (AOR = 0.32, CI: 0.19–0.56), living in urban areas (AOR = 0.16, CI: 0.07–0.37), late menarche (AOR = 0.18, CI: 0.07–0.44), regular menstrual cycles (AOR = 0.44, CI: 0.23–0.81), term pregnancy (AOR = 0.26, CI: 0.13–0.50) and hormonal contraceptive use (AOR = 0.62, CI: 0.41–0.93).ConclusionBreast Ca risk factors in CAR did not appear to be significantly different from that observed in other populations. This study highlighted the risk factors of breast Ca in women living in Bangui to inform appropriate control measures.

BackgroundBreast cancer is recognised as a major public health problem in developing countries; however, there is very limited evidence about its epidemiology in the Central African Republic. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological and histopathological characteristics of breast cancer in Bangui.MethodsThis is a retrospective study based on the data collected from pathological anatomy records from 2003 to 2015 in Bangui. A questionnaire was designed to collect information and data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods.ResultsThe mean age was 45.83 (SD = 13.5) years. The age group of 45–54 years represented the majority of the study population (29.3%). Over 69.5% of the women were housewives with a moderate economic status (56.9%). Less than 14% of the study population had a level of academic degree and 85.6% lived in cities. The breast cancer prevalence was 15.27%. The age-standardized incidence and death by world population (ASW) were 11.19/100,000 and 9.97/100,000 respectively. 50–54 years were most affected. Left breast cancer is mainly common and the time between first symptoms and consultation is more than 48 months. Most (69%) of the samples analysed were lumpectomy. The most common morphology of breast cancer was invasive ductal carcinoma (64.9%). Scarff Bloom Richardson III was the main grade in both common pathological types, but their proportion showed no significant increase along with time (χ2 = 7.06, p = 0.54). Invasion of regional lymph node differed significantly among the pathological type of breast cancer (χ2 = 24.6, p = 0.02). Surgery and chemotherapy were appropriate treatment yet 84.5% of the cases died.ConclusionThe findings of this study showed that breast cancer is common and mostly affected women. Epidemiological trends are more or less common to those of developing countries with a predominance of invasive ductal carcinoma. However, most of the women studied live in an urban area and developed the disease in advanced stage. The establishment of an appropriate framework will effectively contribute to promoting the early detection and reducing the incidence of this disease in the population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3863-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Hypertension is of public health importance in China, but information on geographic distribution on hypertension by map visualization is limited for middle-aged and older adults. Regional geographic variations remain unexplained. Our study is to present geographic distributions at the provincial level and identify provinces and municipalities with high hypertension diagnosis, measurement and prevalence rates and/or low awareness, treatment, control rates among aged 45+ adults in China. We used data collected from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (n = 13,583) of Chinese people aged 45 years or older. We used weighted rates for our analysis. The rates by provinces and municipalities were compared using map visualization, and explore the main factors of the disparity using ordinal logistic regression. Higher hypertension prevalence rates (56.3%) but lower hypertension awareness, treatment and control rates (37.3%, 21.1% and 14.9%, respectively) were observed in Guizhou. Shanghai and Beijing had the highest hypertension prevalence, awareness and treatment rates (65.0%, 87.8% and 80.0% for Shanghai, 57.5%, 88.6% and 77.5% for Beijing, respectively). Remarkable variations were observed among surveyed provinces and municipalities. Several Chinese regions show particularly higher prevalence rates and/or lack of hypertension awareness and poor control.

The aims of this study are to identify the most important predictors of total diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes and estimate the mean change in the predicted probability among aged 45+ adults in China. We used baseline data collected from 2011 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (n = 9,513). First, we estimated the prevalence of diagnosed, measured, total diagnosed, and undiagnosed diabetes. Second, we used probit models to determine whether individual attributes, socioeconomic characteristics and behavioral health factors, including smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, central obesity, are associated with total diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes. We also consider other factors, including contact with medical system, hypertension and urban/rural settings. Third, we estimated average marginal effects of variables in probit models. Among Chinese people aged 45+, the prevalence of diagnosed, measured, total diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes were 5.8% (95%CI, 5.3%-6.3%), 14.7% (95%CI, 14.0%-15.4%), 17.0% (95%CI, 16.3%-17.7%), 11.3% (95%CI, 10.6%-12.0%), respectively. The probability of total diagnosed diabetes is 3.3% (95% CI, 1.2%-5.3%) and 10.2% (95% CI, 7.0%-13.5%) higher for overweight and obesity than normal BMI, 5.0% (95% CI, 3.0%-7.1%) higher for central obesity than normal waist circumference, 5.4% (95% CI, 3.7%-7.0%) higher for hypertensive than normotensive and 1.8% (95% CI, 0.8%- 2.7%) higher in urban areas than in rural areas, respectively. The probability of undiagnosed diabetes is 2.7% (95% CI, 1.2%-4.2%) and 7.2% (95% CI, 4.7%-9.6%) higher for overweight and obesity than normal BMI, 2.6% (95% CI, 0.9%-4.4%) higher for central obesity than normal waist circumference and 2.6% (95% CI, 1.2%-4.0%) higher for hypertensive than normotensive, respectively, and -1.5% (95% CI, -2.5% to -0.5%) lower for individuals who were in contact with the medical system. Greater focus on prevention of diabetes is necessary for obesity, central obesity, hypertensive and in urban areas for middle-aged and older in China.