Cancer risk and social status. interesting relationship

According to the National Cancer Registry more than 160,000 people die every year in our country. new cases of malignant tumors and about 100,000 deaths.
Malignant neoplasms are the second cause of death in Poland after cardiovascular diseases. The risk of developing cancer is increased by a variety of factors, including being overweight, lack of physical activity, poor diet, as well as high salt intake, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking. Now it turns out that social position also has an influence. Cancer can strike anyone, but the risk of getting cancer in poor socioeconomic regions is higher than in rich ones.

Social status and incidence of cancer

The study was published in the medical journal International Journal of Cancer. German researchers from the Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg analyzed data from the federal states of Germany. The results show that social status can influence the incidence of cancer. In Germany, between 2010 and 2013, 7.3 percent more men were diagnosed with cancer in the socially weaker regions than in the richest parts of the country. In turn, already in 2018, this difference increased to 23 percent.
From 2007 to 2018, the incidence of almost all types of cancer decreased in all groups. However, in 2007, for colorectal and lung cancer, the decline appeared to be smaller for men living in the poorer regions of the country.

The influence of social status was especially noticeable in the case of lung cancer - in 2018 it occurred 82% more often in men and 88% more often in women living in the most socio-economically disadvantaged areas (compared to the most affluent regions). However, this does not apply to all types of cancer equally. The most pronounced social differences appear in colorectal cancer and lung cancer. There was no difference between breast cancer and prostate cancer.

How was the study conducted?

A team of scientists analyzed cancer diagnoses in 8 federal states with a total population of 49 million people, or 60 percent of the total German population. During the study, scientists compared data on cancer diagnosis at the level of districts and counties with the corresponding socio-economic indicator, which was divided into 5 groups depending on:

• employment rate,

• education,

• Wednesday,

• safety,

• income level.

What is the reason for this dependence?

What are the reasons for the association between social position and increased risk of cancer? Although it may seem that this is influenced, for example, by the level of healthcare, which is manifested, among other things, in the distance to the nearest medical facility, the number of doctors available, hospital beds, nursing homes, it turns out that this is not the case. It is social factors that play the most important role in this matter. “Therefore, it seems that social factors play a much larger role than general infrastructure,” said one of the study’s authors. Such results are likely to be closely related to lifestyle. The researchers note that in the studied regions there is a discrepancy in:

• widespread smoking,

• alcohol consumption,

• no movement

• severe obesity.

Any of the above factors can increase your risk of developing cancer. Researcher Lina Jansen notes:

Our results show once again that we need to make special efforts in the future to ensure that all people equally benefit from healthy lifestyle advice and early cancer screening – no matter where they live.