3 Review(s)

This book –which is the outcome of his doctoral thesis, and the first of two planned volumes – DR. SOURAV MADHUR DEY investigates and discusses the impact of various determinants on, or risk factors for, the likelihood for a person to be afflicted with some form of cancer. As the number of possible such factors is very great – genetic factors, life-style factors, environmental factors, etc. –he focuses on four areas: people’s basic knowledge about cancer, some life-style factors, particularly nutrition, occupation hazards and the person’s habits regarding physical exercise and preventive health checkups. The study is within the field of public health/social medicine in sociology, thereby focusing on prevention rather than cure, and Dey’s empirical material consists of information about and from cancer patients at a cancer clinic in Kolkata. The results are broken down in sub-categories such as the individual’s education level, gender, and socio-economic status. As cancer globally is the second foremost cause of death, which probably is also true for India, and as the social, economic, and other consequences of the disease are very grave, both on the individual and societal level, these results are important. To educate and inform a population is, after all, not insurmountable for a society to achieve. Prevention is after all the best cure.