Johannesburg - Cancer is the most common severe illness for women in South Africa, Discovery Life revealed on Tuesday.
As International Women’s Day commemorations were taking place across the globe, the health insurer’s research also found that nervous system and cardiovascular conditions are the next most concerning illnesses among South African women.
“During the last period of reporting for Discovery Life (2020) more than 54% of our severe illness claims from women were cancer claims,” Dr Maritha van der Walt, Chief Medical Officer at Discovery Life said.
“Claims for conditions of the nervous system such as strokes and multiple sclerosis totalled around 15% of severe illness claims during the 2020 period. Heart conditions amounted to approximately 7% of our severe illness claims for women.”
Dr van der Walt added that as many as 29% of disability claims made by women during 2020 were also as a result of cancer, followed by 19% due to nervous system conditions and 17% related to mental and behavioural conditions, underscoring the need for interventions and proactive care in these areas.
“This is tragic because many of the risk factors of cancer and cardiovascular conditions in women are preventable or manageable. We need to be doing more to advocate for healthy behaviour, prevention and proactive screening,” she explained.
Dr van der Walt insisted that early detection of cancer is crucially important and that during 2020, Discovery Life witnessed a variety of different life cover claims, but that cancer remained the predominant cause of death among women too.
“Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, followed by colon, lung, and ovarian cancer.”
Dr van der Walt said that the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, which erupted across the globe almost two years ago, caused widespread disruptions in South Africa in regards to cancer screenings.
“During the last two years many people were not able to have their regular screenings, including regular mammograms, pap smears and other examinations.”
“Early stages of breast cancer generally have a very good prognosis and breast cancer accounts for as much as 46% of female cancers,” she said.
Dr van der Walt urged people from all walks of life to get screened for cancer.
“We would like to encourage everyone to prioritise this now, as early detection is the greatest factor in successfully treating and recovering from cancer.”
Dr van der Walt said that cancer-related death claims can be prevented due to screening, medical technology and better treatment.
“We can see that the proportion of female deaths resulting from cancer has declined significantly during the 2018 to 2020 period compared to the years between 2015 and 2017. This decrease amounts to 16% fewer cancer-related death claims.”
“The decline shows us that preventative measures save lives and that screening and early-detection are essential in this regard,” Dr van der Walt said.
Discovery Life also found that the second largest cause of death to our female clients is cardiovascular conditions, comprising 18% of death claims while the third highest category of death claims for women is respiratory system conditions, followed by secondary infections which included those who died from Covid-19.
“Infections, including Covid-19, as the cause of death comprised about 3% of Discovery Life’s death claims for females in 2019 and during 2020, this increased to 10%, attributable to Covid,” Dr van der Walt said.
She explained that the current evidence suggested that women are also at higher risk of suffering from long Covid.
“This drives home the importance of everyone getting vaccinated to avoid what are eminently preventable hospitalisations and deaths,” adds van der Walt.
She urged women of all ages to get regular health check-ups and to consider comprehensive life insurance cover for themselves and their families
“As a Discovery Life client, women of all ages can take advantage of Vitality health checks along with regular check-ups with their GPs, gynaecologists, and other specialists.” “Mammograms, pap smears, diabetes, and blood pressure checks, among others, are crucial screening options that can make such a difference in reducing disease severity and even death,” she said.