Relationship of Social Determinants of Health with the Three-year Survival Rate of Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND: Social determinants of health are among the key factors affecting the pathogenesis of diseases. Considering the increasingly high prevalence of breast cancer and the association of social determinants of health with its occurrence, related morbidity and mortality and survival rate, this study sought to assess the relationship of three-year survival rate of breast cancer with social determinants of health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cohort study was conducted on males and females presenting to the Cancer Research Center of Shohada-E-Tajrish Hospital from 2006 to 2010 with definite diagnosis of breast cancer. Data were collected via phone interviews. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression was fitted using SPSS (version 18) and PH assumption was tested by STATA (version 11) software. RESULTS: The study was performed on 797 breast cancer patients, aged 25-93 years with mean age of 54.66 (SD=11.86) years. After 3 years from diagnosing cancer 700 (87.8%) patients were alive and 97 (12.2%) patients were dead. Using log rank test, there was relationship between 3-year survivals with age, education, childhood residence, sibling, treatment type, and district were significant (p<0.05). Using Cox PH regression, 3-year survival was related to age, level of education, municipal district of residence and childhood condition (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Social determinants of health such as childhood condition, city region residency, level of education and age affect the three-year survival rate of breast cancer. Future studies must focus on the effect of childhood social class on the survival rates of cancers, which have been paid less attention to.