Socioeconomic inequalities in cancer incidence and

Authors: Andrea Eberle Sabine Luttmann Ronja Foraita Hermann Pohlabeln

Publish Date: 2010/01/06

Volume: 18, Issue: 3, Pages: 227-235

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Abstract

Several international studies have already investigated the influence of socioeconomic factors on the risk of cancer For Germany however the data are still insufficient We examined the effects of social differences on cancer incidence and mortality on the population of Bremen a town in northwest GermanyData were obtained from the Bremen Cancer Registry a populationbased registry The database comprised 27430 incident cases newly diagnosed between 2000 and 2006 The allocation of social class for each patient was based on the home address at the time of diagnosis which led to the corresponding town district which again could be linked to the “Bremen discrimination index” Based on this index cases were allocated to five categories for which we compared standardized incidence ratios SIR and mortality ratios SMR for different cancers prostate breast lung colorectal bladder uterine ovarian cervical malignant melanoma of the skin nonmelanoma skin cancer and all cancer sites summarizedThe influence of social status was observed for different cancer sites An inverse association was ascertained for all cancer sites only men and for tumors of the oral cavity and pharynx and for lung cervical and bladder cancers A positive correlation was observed for female breast cancer malignant melanoma nonmelanoma skin tumors and prostate cancerIn spite of the methodical restrictions our analyses suggest an association between social factors and cancer incidence and mortality The results are in agreement with international studies Many of the observed social class differences could probably be explained by known risk factors such as smoking alcohol consumption diet and physical activity

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