More young South Africans‚ in their twenties and thirties‚ are being afflicted with or are dying from cancer‚ often because of late diagnosis, reports The Times. This is the word from financial services group Liberty‚ which has revealed that cancer was the main cause of claims across all age groups in South Africa last year.
It said 15.2% of claims – mainly for life and loss of income – came from young people‚ while 24.4% of claims emanated from young parents – in their twenties and thirties. Liberty paid out R4.3bn in claims last year – 13% more than in 2015.
Henk Meintjies‚ head of risk product development at Liberty‚ said in the report: “This amounts to R17m every working day. These statistics reveal concerning trends in health and lifestyle risks with cancer and cardiac and cardiovascular conditions being the main causes.
“The cancer stats are relevant to the insured population‚ which reveals a high incidence of breast cancer for females. It is the number one claim for women‚ while prostrate cancer is the top claim amongst men.”
“The South African stats of breast and prostrate cancer‚ mirror our own claims‚” said Meintjies.
Dr Philippa Peil‚ Liberty’s chief medical officer‚ said in the report that poor diets‚ physical inactivity‚ stress and smoking was fuelling cancer in South Africa.
[link url="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2017/04/04/Cancer-a-big-killer-of-young-South-Africans%E2%80%9A-insurer-says"]The Times report[/link]