Socioeconomic aspect of breast cancer incidence and mortality in women in Lower Silesia (Poland) in 2005–2014

Abstract Objective Identifying breast cancer-specific (BC) correlations between socioeconomic factors and population health is important for the optimization of womens cancer screening programs. Materials/Methods The research was based on data of 14,158 BC cases and 4096 deaths from BC in women registered at the Lower Silesian Cancer Registry in 2005–2014 and data from Statistical Office. Results We found a negative impact of female unemployment on the incidence of BC, and a positive impact on women's deaths due to BC. The performed spatiotemporal disease clusters’ analysis of BC data discovered a statistically significant (p<0.05) 2 “hot” and 3 “cold spots” in incidence and only 1 “hot” disease cluster in mortality. Conclusion The state of health of a society is strictly associated with socio-economic conditions; one of the prognostic factors in the epidemiology of BC is the unemployment rate among women. Broadly understood urban-rural conditions affect the assessment of incidence and mortality from BC.