Socioeconomic and demographic disparities in breast cancer stage at presentation and survival: A Swiss population-based study.

Feller, Anita; Schmidlin, Kurt; Bordoni, Andrea; Bouchardy, Christine; Bulliard, Jean-Luc; Camey, Bertrand; Konzelmann, Isabelle; Maspoli, Manuela; Wanner, Miriam; Clough-Gorr, Kerri M; SNC and the NICER, working group (2017). Socioeconomic and demographic disparities in breast cancer stage at presentation and survival: A Swiss population-based study. International journal of cancer, 141(8), pp. 1529-1539. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1002/ijc.30856

	Text Feller IntJCancer 2017.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (257kB) | Request a copy
Preview	Text Feller IntJCancer 2017_postprint.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (380kB) | Preview

We explored socioeconomic and demographic disparities in breast cancer (BC) stage at presentation and survival in a Swiss population-based sample of female BC patients linked to the census-based Swiss National Cohort. Tumor stage was classified according to Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program summary stage (in situ/localized/regional/distant). We used highest education level attained to estimate SEP (low/middle/high). Further demographic characteristics of interest were age at presentation (30-49/50-69/70-84 years), living in a canton with organized screening (yes/no), urbanity of residence (urban/peri-urban/rural), civil status (single/married/widowed/divorced) and nationality (Swiss/non-Swiss). We used ordered logistic regression models to analyze factors associated with BC stage at presentation and competing risk regression models for factors associated with survival. Odds of later-stage BC were significantly increased for low SEP women (odds ratio 1.19, 95%CI 1.06-1.34) compared to women of high SEP. Further, women living in a canton without organized screening program, women diagnosed outside the targeted screening age and single/widowed/divorced women were more often diagnosed at later stages. Women of low SEP experienced an increased risk of dying from BC (sub-hazard ratio 1.22, 95%CI 1.05-1.43) compared to women of high SEP. Notably, these survival inequalities could not be explained by socioeconomic differences in stage at presentation and/or other sociodemographic factors. It is concerning that these social gradients have been observed in a country with universal health insurance coverage, high health expenditures and one of the highest life expectancies in the world.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

138 since deposited on 31 Oct 2017
22 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item