Profile of people living with cancer followed in the palliative care unit of Parakou, Benin in 2021

Introduction: Cancer is a global public health problem. This study focused on the the profile of people living with cancer in Parakou.

Study method: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study which enrolled people living with cancer followed in the palliative heath care of the internal medicine unit at the Regional University Health Center of Borgou who had given their consent. The variables of the study were: sociodemographic data, nutritional status, comorbidities, circumstances of cancer screening and their location. Data analysis was performed using Epi Data 3.1 software.

Results: The study population consisted of 264 people with cancer. A male predominance was observed with a sex ratio of 2.66. The average age was 47.51 years ±13.20. Alcohol consumption was observed in 15.2%. Arterial hypertension was found in 63.6% of subjects. On the nutritional level, malnutrition and weight loss were observed respectively in 68.2% and 98.1% of patients. Abdominal pain, asthenia and weight loss were the main circumstances for cancer screening and were present in 37.1%, 27.6% and 16.7% of participants respectively. Liver cancer was found in the majority (72%) of the participants. Viral hepatitis B was the most common cause with 98.3%

Conclusion: cancer affects young adults and is often detected at an advanced stage. The main site is the liver and infection with the hepatitis B virus is found in most of the cases.