According to a recent Queen’s University study, poorer cancer patients have an increased chance of dying prematurely from the disease than wealthier ones.
The University researchers analyzed all cases of breast, colon, rectal, non-small-cell lung, cervical, and laryngeal cancer diagnosed in the province between 2003 and 2007, as reported by the Ontario Cancer Registry. Those patients were then separated into groups based on their household’s median income.
Assistant professor Christopher Booth, lead researcher on the study said that these differences in survival across social groups were first reported in Ontario in the 1990s, adding “It remains unclear why these disparities exist in the 21st century despite universal health care. As clinicians, researchers and policy-makers we need to work towards understanding and correcting these disparities.”
In spite of the province’s universal healthcare, significant differences in survival across socioeconomic groups persist. Overall and cancer-specific patient survival from less affluent communities was lower than those who came from wealthier backgrounds. The University team discovered there was just a very minor difference in the stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis across socioeconomic groups. That determination is very different than similar studies in the United States, where the lack of free health care factored into a disparity between what stage the cancer was first diagnosed between the rich and poor.
“It is plausible that the lack of a strong association between stage of disease and socioeconomic status in our study relates to the presence of universal health coverage in Ontario, which may facilitate access to primary care physicians and/or cancer screening,” said Dr. Booth.
Christopher Booth is also a researcher at the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute and an oncologist at the Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario at Kingston General Hospital.
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Photo courtesy Brian Hawkins