Online Program

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Wednesday, January 8
Wed, Jan 8, 10:30 AM - 12:15 PM
Porthole
Measuring Health Inequities to Inform Policy

Geographical socioeconomic inequalities in cancer mortality using vital statistics in Japan: 1995-2014 (307869)

*Yuri Ito, Osaka Medical College 
Keisuke Fukui, Osaka Medical College 
Tomoki Nakaya, Tohoku University 

Keywords: health inequalities, cancer mortality

It is important to monitor health inequalities using official statistics. We monitored the trends in socioeconomic inequalities in cancer mortality using vital statistics from 1995 to 2014 and the areal deprivation index (ADI) as geographical socioeconomic status. We calculated the age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) of major cancer sites and all cancer by sex, period at diagnosis and quintile of ADI group. We also estimated trends of the slope index of inequalities (SII) as absolute differences of ASMR between the most deprived and the least deprived group and the relative index of inequalities (RII). Among major cancer sites, the largest SII in men was liver cancer in 1995-99, and lung cancer in 2010-14, which contributed 31% to the SII in all-cancer mortality in men. For women, the SII in allcancer mortality is much smaller than in men, because some cancers showed an inverse contrast. Socioeconomic inequalities in lung cancer would be related to the differences in prevalence of smoking. Further studies are needed to understand the mechanisms of deprivation gap in cancer, considering the relationship with risk factors, early detection, and access to the appropriate treatment.