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Geographical variations of socioeconomic status and prostate cancer mortality in Taiwan

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Abstract

Purpose

A population-wide study was conducted to determine the association between area-level socioeconomic status and prostate cancer mortality in Taiwan.

Methods

Age–period–cohort analysis was performed to adjust the time-trend variation. The area-level socioeconomic factors included proportion with a higher education, average income tax, population density, and clinical workload.

Results

After adjustment for time-trend variations in age, period, and cohort, prostate cancer mortality was significantly lower in the groups with the highest higher education proportion (rate ratio 0.88; 95% Confidence Intervals 0.83–0.93), average income tax (RR 0.90; 95% CIs 0.86–0.94), and population density (RR 0.88; 95% CI 0.83–0.93). When all variables were incorporated into one model, the rate ratio of prostate cancer mortality was 0.92 (95% CIs 0.88–0.97) in the region with the highest average income tax level compared with that with the lowest level, but differences in the other socioeconomic factors were not significant.

Conclusions

This study revealed a significantly lower prostate cancer mortality rate in areas with a high higher education proportion, average income tax level, and population density compared with areas of low socioeconomic status in Taiwan.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available but can be obtained from the corresponding author.

Code availability

Software SAS 9.4.

Abbreviations

APC:

Age–period–cohort

ICD:

International Classification of Diseases

LAAs:

Local administrative areas

SEGIS:

Socio-Economic Geographic Information System

WHO:

World Health Organization

PSA:

Prostate-specific antigen

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Acknowledgments

This manuscript was edited by Wallace Academic Editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, No. 17, Xuzhou Rd., Taipei, 100, Taiwan

    Shih-Yung Su

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  1. Shih-Yung Su
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SYS conceptualized the study, analyzed the data, prepared the figures and tables, and wrote paper.

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Correspondence to Shih-Yung Su.

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Su, SY. Geographical variations of socioeconomic status and prostate cancer mortality in Taiwan. Cancer Causes Control 32, 203–210 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-020-01374-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-020-01374-1

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