Illiterates face more cancer rate in Nepal: Study

There is a higher cancer rate among illiterate people than literate ones in Nepal, according to a study by the Action Nepal, a non-governmental organisation working on advancing tobacco control in Nepal.

Forty six percent illiterate people contracted cancer caused by the consumption of tobacco products, said the study.

In 2019, the organisation carried out a study on financial burden facing tobacco-caused cancer patients seeking treatments. Tobacco-caused cancer cases in people pursuing higher education have stood at 1.9 percent. Sixteen percent of them sought treatment by selling off their properties including houses and land.

Similarly, 27.2 percent bore treatment costs through their savings, and 60 percent took loans from their relatives. Tobacco-caused cancer has put life expectancy rate at 53.5 years of age, according to the study. Three hundred tobacco-caused cancer patients were included in the study.

Of them, 42.7 percent were dependent on agriculture as main income sources for treatment costs, 22.3 on trade, 11.7 on daily wages, and 8.7 each on government job and foreign employment.