Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women around the world. Its occurrence and development have been linked to genetic factors, living habits, health conditions, and socioeconomic factors. Comparisons of incidence and mortality rates of female breast cancer are useful approaches to define cancer-related socioeconomic disparities.
This was a retrospective observational cohort study on breast cancer of women in several developed countries over 30 years. Effects of socioeconomic factors were analyzed using a path diagram method.
We found a positive, significant association of public wealth on incidence and mortality of breast cancer, and the path coefficients in the structural equations are −0.51 and −0.39, respectively. The unemployment rate (UR) is critical and the path coefficients are all 0.2. The path coefficients of individual economic wealth to the rates of breast cancer are 0.18 and 0.27, respectively.
The influence of social pressure on the incidence and mortality of breast cancer was not typical monotonous. The survival rate of breast cancer determined by the ratio of mortality rate to incidence rate showed a similar pattern with socioeconomic factors.