Publications by authors named "Eva J Kantelhardt"

Background/objectives: Hypertension is often asymptomatic, progresses slowly, and leads to multiple secondary diseases. Thus, a regular blood pressure check is recommended. The objective of this study is to assess the intention to undergo a blood pressure check and its associated factors among adults in Southwest Shewa Zone, Ethiopia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cancer (BC) is a leading cause of death worldwide, particularly also among African woman. In order to better stratify patients for the most effective (immuno-) therapy, an in depth characterization of the immune status of BC patients is required. In this study, a cohort of 65 Ethiopian patients with primary BC underwent immune profiling by multicolor flow cytometry on peripheral blood samples collected prior to surgery and to any other therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Despite the high non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality in Ethiopia, NCD screening in the country remains suboptimal. This study assessed the health communication process and materials designed to promote NCD screening among adult primary healthcare facility attendants in the Gurage Zone, Ethiopia.

Methods: A parallel mixed-methods approach was employed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Screening for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a critical step for early detection and the prevention of consequent morbidity and mortality. To facilitate NCD screening, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health has developed screening guidelines. However, like other low- and middle-income countries, interventions to increase the uptake of NCD-screening services in Ethiopia remain ineffective.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The clinical management of breast cancer (BC) is mainly based on the assessment of receptor expression by tumour cells. However, there is still an unmet need for novel biomarkers important for prognosis and therapy. The tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) is thought to play a key role in prognosis and therapy selection, therefore this study aimed to describe the TIME in Ethiopian BC patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers identified key reasons for missed follow-up appointments, including lack of information, forgetfulness, and a perceived lack of need for follow-up, along with healthcare professionals noting barriers like poor counseling and living in remote areas.
  • * To improve follow-up rates, recommendations include raising community awareness, enhancing patient counseling, and implementing reminder systems (such as calls or SMS) to encourage women to attend their appointments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • STIs and HPV infections are prevalent among women of reproductive age, leading to serious health issues like infertility and cervical cancer, especially in areas with limited medical resources.
  • A study in Ethiopia examined the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (BV) and STIs among 779 asymptomatic pregnant women, revealing that 26.8% tested positive for BV or an STI, while 22.1% had high-risk HPV types.
  • The findings suggest a significant link between HPV and certain STIs, highlighting the need for screening and treatment to reduce potential complications in pregnancy and long-term health risks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cancers of the stomach and esophagus are the fourth and sixth most common causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, respectively. Although various tools have been developed to assess the quality of life of patients with esophagogastric cancer, EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-OG25 are the most used all over the world. However, they have not been validated in an Ethiopian context.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * The study found that HPV prevalence differs by location, being higher in urban areas (36.8%) compared to rural areas (17.6%), and that factors like early sexual debut and having a polygamous partner are linked to increased HPV risk.
  • * The results suggest that the nonavalent HPV vaccine could effectively target the most common high-risk HPV types found in Ethiopian women, and there’s potential for improving screening through antenatal care services using self-sampled vaginal lavages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Early screening for cervical cancer has substantially reduced the morbidity and mortality attributed to it. This study aimed to assess factors that affect the intention to undergo cervical cancer screening among rural women attending primary healthcare facilities in south-central Ethiopia. A health-facility-based, cross-sectional study design was employed for which the calculated required sample size was 427.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Although cancer incidence and mortality are rising in Ethiopia, lay and health professional perceptions of the disease remain limited.

Objective: To explore perceptions of cancer, including its causes, signs and symptoms, and transmission within a rural community in Ethiopia.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study in four rural neighbourhoods of Butajira in central Ethiopia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted to evaluate the quality of cancer care in Sub-Saharan Africa by examining how well diagnostic and treatment practices align with NCCN guidelines in 10 countries.
  • Researchers analyzed data from adult cancer patients and identified a low rate of guideline adherence, especially for cancers like cervical and colorectal cancer, which had the poorest compliance.
  • The findings highlighted significant gaps in diagnostic and treatment services, especially in lower HDI countries, indicating a need for improvements to increase curable cancer cases across the region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Survival rates of breast cancer (BC) patients are particularly low in rural regions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) which is due to limited access to therapy. In recent years, gene expression profiling (GEP) of BC showed a strong prognostic value in patients with local tumour surgery and (neo)adjuvant treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of intrinsic subtypes on survival of patients in rural Ethiopia without any (neo)adjuvant therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Systemic therapy plays a major part in the cure of patients with early breast cancer (eBC). However, personalized treatment concepts are required to avoid potentially harmful overtreatment. Biomarkers are pivotal for individualized therapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In response to climate change (CC), medicine needs to consider new aspects in health counselling of patients. Such climate-sensitive health counselling (CSHC) may include counselling patients on preventing and coping with climate-sensitive diseases or on leading healthy and climate-friendly lifestyles. This study aimed to identify previous participation in and preferences for CSHC as well as associated sociodemographic and attitudinal factors among the general public in Germany.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The Cancer Survival in Africa, Asia, and South America project (SURVCAN-3) of the International Agency for Research on Cancer aims to fill gaps in the availability of population-level cancer survival estimates from countries in these regions. Here, we analysed survival for 18 cancers using data from member registries of the African Cancer Registry Network across 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods: We included data on patients diagnosed with 18 cancer types between Jan 1, 2005, and Dec 31, 2014, from 13 population-based cancer registries in Cotonou (Benin), Abidjan (CÔte d'Ivoire), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Eldoret and Nairobi (Kenya), Bamako (Mali), Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, Eastern Cape (South Africa), Kampala (Uganda), and Bulawayo and Harare (Zimbabwe).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cancer incidence is increasing in Ethiopia mainly due to increased life expectancy, while oncological capacities remain limited. Strong referral linkages between different levels of the healthcare system are key to provide timely access to cancer care. In this qualitative study, we assessed limitations and potential of cancer patient referral in the rural Southwest of Ethiopia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant neoplasm among women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The willingness and ability to pay (WATP) for treatment is a contributing factor in the utilization of health care services. The World Health Organization Breast Cancer Initiative calls for 80% of patients to complete multimodality treatment and indicates payment as central factor to improve BC outcome.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures for cancer care expose households to unanticipated economic consequences. When the available health services are mainly dependent on OOP expenditure, the household faces catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). This study aimed to estimate the incidence and intensity of CHE in hospitalized cancer patients and identify coping strategies and associated factors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In low-income countries, oesophageal cancer often presents at an advanced stage, leaving patients with limited curative treatment options. Furthermore, palliative treatments such as oesophageal stents or brachytherapy are lacking. This has a detrimental effect on their quality of life.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In Ethiopia, both incidence and mortality of cervical cancer are relatively high. Screening services, which were implemented during the past few years, are currently being expanded. The World Health Organization recommends patients with a positive VIA (visual inspection with acetic acid) result should immediately receive treatment followed by rescreening after 1 year as precancerous lesions can reoccur or become residential despite treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the fourth most common cancer of women in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), although few data have been published on population-level survival. We estimate ovarian cancer survival in SSA by human development index and histological subtype, using data from seven population-based cancer registries in six countries: Kenya (Nairobi and Eldoret), Mauritius, Uganda (Kampala), Cote d'Ivoire (Abidjan), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) and South Africa (Eastern Cape). A total of 644 cases diagnosed during 2008-2014 were included, with 77% being of epithelial subtypes (range 47% [Abidjan]-80% [Mauritius]).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cancer diagnosis and treatment can be physically arduous, disrupting patients' social and work lives. Understanding the extent of these problems is key to addressing patients' needs, but specific psychosocial challenges have not yet been well studied in resource-limited settings. A qualitative study was conducted in the capital and two regions of Ethiopia with the aim of exploring psychosocial challenges among cancer patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Although mastectomy is the standard treatment modality for breast cancer patients in Ethiopia, our previous study revealed that one in five patients do not receive the recommended procedure, half due to patient refusal or lack of returning to the hospital. Therefore, this study aimed to explore reasons for refusing mastectomy and identify challenges among breast cancer patients in Ethiopia.

Methods: An explorative qualitative study was conducted in four hospitals located in the towns of Woliso, Butajira, Hossana, and Assela.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionhqb6km8nmvj15huji16knn77b84aad4n): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once