Factors associated with breast cancer occurrence before the age of 40 in Yaoundé

Background: In Cameroon, one third of breast cancers concern women less than 40 of age and young age appeared to be an independent predictor of adverse outcome. This study aimed to determine factors associated with the development of breast cancer before the age of 40 in Yaoundé.Methods: A case-control study was conducted for 7 months, from November 1st, 2016 to May 31st, 2017 at the General Hospital and the gyneco-obstetric and Paediatric Hospital of Yaoundé. Study compared the socio-demographic, clinical and lifestyle data of 50 women less than 40 of age with breast cancer (cases) with those of 200 women below 40 of age without breast cancer (controls). Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to assess the socio-demographic, clinical and lifestyle data. Data were computed using the SPSS version 23.0 software. The significance threshold value was set at 0.05.Results: After multivariate analysis, the factors independently associated with the occurrence of breast cancer before the age of 40 were: age ≥ 30 (aOR = 2.05); family history of breast cancer (aOR = 8.65); parity ≥ 1 (aOR = 2.46); breastfeeding (aOR = 3.39); waist circumference ≥ 88 centimeters (cm) (aOR = 4.38); breast density ≥ 90                      (aOR = 2.89); physical activity ≤ 3 hours/week (aOR = 4.78). Conclusions: Breast cancer in women under 40 is associated with family history, reproductive life and women's lifestyles.  Breastfeeding more than 12 months, having a balanced diet, supplementary screening tests in women with dense breasts and practicing physical activity; would be  effective ways to prevent it in young women.

Intimate partner violence during the confinement period of the COVID-19 pandemic: exploring the French and Cameroonian public health policies

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an unprecedented pandemic. COVID-19 is a highly contagious and potentially fatal respiratory infection which has spread within three months of its outbreak to more than 173 countries, causing 3.7 million infections and 256,551 deaths at this writing. Unfortunately, no treatment or vaccine currently exists for COVID-19, although several clinical trials are on-going to find a definite solution to this pandemic. Prevention through public health measures remain the best strategy recommended till date. This prevention involves physical distancing and compulsory confinement at home in several European countries, in the UK and USA. Unfortunately, home confinement decreed in most high-income countries like France has been dangerous for women, victims of psychological, physical and sexual violence from their intimate partner. Violence between intimate partners has become an unintended consequence of the stay-at-home policy against COVID-19. Since the promulgation of a home confinement decreed in many high resource settings (USA, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, etc), the rate of violence between intimate partners has increased tremendously resulting to the worst scenario, women's death in some of these countries. The stay-at-home law is not yet a national decree in several low resource settings like Africa, where COVID-19 has not been declared an epidemic in several countries. However, intimate partner violence has been reportedly described as a real violation of women's right before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in the African continent. This commentary highlights the effects of intimate partner violence due to COVID-19 confinement in France and extrapolates what may be the effect of an implementation of a COVID-19 confinement law in Cameroon. Also, the authors suggest recommendations to lessen the burden of intimate partner violence in countries with a stay-at-home policy