The Behavioural Research Unit (BRET) of the Ethiopian Organization for Cancer Prevention and Research (CPR – Ethiopia) works on two questions: the best ways to prevent or reduce behaviours that increase cancer risk, and the best ways to support participation in evidence-based screening.
What the unit covers
The unit’s priorities run across the cancer control continuum, from prevention through to end-of-life care, and include:
- Basic behavioural and psychological science — the mechanisms underneath a behaviour, rather than only its prevalence
- Interventions in tobacco use, and in diet and energy balance
- Communication and informatics — how health messages are built, carried and received
- Surveillance of the public’s use of cancer information — what people look for, where they look for it, and what they find
Screening participation, and what shapes it
In 2019, 4% of Ethiopian women aged 30–49 had ever been screened for cervical cancer, and 3% had been screened within the previous five years (WHO Global Health Observatory (opens in a new tab), indicator NCD_CXCA_SCREENED_WITHIN_TIMEPERIOD). Ethiopia’s programme is recorded as opportunistic (indicator NCD_CCS_cervicalcancerpgmtype): a woman is screened if she reaches a facility that offers a test and the subject is raised, rather than being called in. Under that arrangement, what prompts a woman to ask — and what happens when she does — carries much of the coverage figure. That is the behaviour this unit studies.
Uptake under an active offer has also been recorded. In a month-long campaign across six regions from November 2025, 275,607 women were screened (opens in a new tab) against a target of 267,662. Awareness messaging reached 1,036,222 people alongside it, and community mobilisation reached 637,149 women.
Tobacco use, and the behaviour behind the prevalence figures
Adult current tobacco smoking in Ethiopia was 4.0% in 2024, and current use of tobacco in any form was 4.6% as surveyed — 8.8% of men and 0.5% of women (TOBACCO_MPOWER_M1_PREVALENCE). WHO publishes a second value for the same year and age range: a modelled estimate of current tobacco use, indicator M_Est_tob_curr, of 4.5%.
Among 13–15-year-olds surveyed in 2023, current smoking was 10.3% — 10.9% among boys and 8.0% among girls, against 0.4% of adult women (Global Youth Tobacco Survey 2023 and Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2024; WHO Global Health Observatory, indicators TOBACCO_MPOWER_M3_PREVALENCE and TOBACCO_MPOWER_M1_PREVALENCE). The two surveys differ in year, age range and instrument, so they describe two cohorts rather than one trend.
Behind those percentages sits the behaviour the unit works on. Ethiopia’s 2024 national tobacco survey measured quit attempts, advice to quit from health workers, and what Ethiopians believe about tobacco — how many users try to stop, and what stops them succeeding. The tobacco control research page covers that strand.
Communication and the use of cancer information
Surveillance of the public’s use of cancer information asks what people read about cancer, where they read it, and what they conclude from it.
Part of what an Ethiopian reader encounters is prevention material produced elsewhere, written against different exposures. Ethiopian physical inactivity was 9.4% in 2022, against a global 31% in the same year, and adult obesity was 2.9% in 2024, against a global 16% in 2022 (WHO Global Health Observatory (opens in a new tab), indicators NCD_PAA and NCD_BMI_30A).
Working with the unit
Proposals for joint behavioural studies are covered on the collaborate page. Early career scientists with novel hypotheses in prevention and early detection should read grants and fellowships. Enquiries to cancer.prev.ethio@gmail.com.