INTRODUCTION Disability-adjusted life years is a composite measure that integrates the components of mortality and morbidity. It is a useful indicator of overall disease burden and is particularly useful for evaluating health intervention outcomes. In the cases of breast and reproductive system cancers, these can also negatively affect childbearing opportunities for young women.

OBJECTIVE Determine disability-adjusted life years for breast and reproductive system cancers in Cuban women aged 15–44 years during the period 1990–2006.

METHODS A national epidemiological study was conducted using Cuba’s disease and vital statistics registry data for 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2006. Disability-adjusted life years in women aged 15–44 years were calculated for breast cancer and three female reproductive system cancers (cervical, endometrial and ovarian), by summing years of life lost due to premature mortality and years lived with disability. Years of life lost due to premature mortality were determined based on age-specific estimates of life expectancy. Years lived with disability were calculated as the product of severities (provided by the 1990 Global Burden of Disease study) and incidence and average duration, both obtained via the DISMOD II program. Data entered in the program include national statistics on incidence, prevalence, and mortality.

RESULTS Breast cancer and cervical cancer proved to have the highest rates of potential years of life lost due to premature mortality, with the sharpest increases in the period (from 139 to 206.5 and 114.7 to 215.2 per 100,000, respectively). Endometrial and ovarian neoplasms crept up more slowly. An increase in years lived with disability was seen in three of these four types of cancer; only cervical cancer saw a decline (from 12.7 to 9 per 100,000). Breast cancer and cervical cancer presented the highest levels of disability-adjusted life years for all four years studied, rising from 146.9 to 227.8 and 127.4 to 224.2 per 100,000, respectively between 1990 and 2006.

CONCLUSIONS An unfavorable trend in disability-adjusted life years was seen for breast and cervical cancer between 1990 and 2006 in Cuban women of childbearing age.

KEYWORDS Disability-adjusted life years, years of life lost due to premature mortality, years lived with disability, cancer, breast, female reproductive system, fertility, Cuba