Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Prevalent Prostate Cancer in the South Korea

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer prevalence recently has increased among male adults in South Korea. But, few study has evaluated the reason. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status and prevalent prostate cancer. METHODS: This study enrolled 16,215 males aged 40 years and over who took part in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2016. In addition, we obtained the 2000-2016 age-standardized incidence rate and age-standardized mortality rate of prostate cancer from the Korean Statistical Information Service. RESULTS: After adjusting for other covariates, prevalent prostate cancer was significantly associated with monthly household income (OR 3.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.48–9.30, for highest vs. lowest) and significantly associated with education level (OR 3.66, 95% CI 1.54–8.70, for ≥ 13 vs. ≤ 6). In the analysis of the age-standardized incidence rate and the age-standardized mortality rate, the age-standardized incidence rate has soared from 2000 to 2011 and then decreased gradually, but the age-standardized mortality rate did not change. CONCLUSION: In our results, prevalent prostate cancer increased significantly with socioeconomic status and the increase in prevalent prostate cancer may be attributable to earlier detection rather than to a real increase in prevalence.