Burden of cancer attributable to insufficient physical activity in Tunisia.

Background: Insufficient physical activity is a risk factor for several types of cancer. Therefore, estimating the burden of cancer attributable to insufficient physical activity is essential to evaluate the effect of health promotion and prevention interventions.

Aims: We estimated the number of incident cancer cases, deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to insufficient physical activity in the Tunisian population aged 35 years and older in 2019.

Methods: We estimated the age-specific population attributable fractions by sex and cancer site to estimate the proportion of cases, deaths and DALYs that could be avoided with optimal levels of physical activity. We used data on cancer incidence, mortality and DALYs from the Global Burden of Disease study estimates for Tunisia in 2019, and data on physical activity prevalence from a Tunisian population-based survey in 2016. We used site-specific relative risk estimates from meta-analyses and comprehensive reports.

Results: The prevalence of insufficient physical activity was 95.6%. In 2019, 16 890 incident cancer cases, 9368 cancer-related deaths and 230 900 cancer-related DALYs were estimated to have occurred in Tunisia. We estimated that 7.9% of incident cancer cases, 9.8% of cancer-related deaths and 9.9% of cancer-related DALYs were attributable to insufficient physical activity. At cancer sites known to be associated with inadequate physical activity, 14.6% of cancer cases, 15.7% of deaths and 15.6% of DALYs were attributable to insufficient physical activity.

Conclusion: Insufficient physical activity contributed to almost 10% of the cancer burden in Tunisia in 2019. Reaching optimal physical activity levels would considerably reduce the burden of associated cancers in the long-term.