Effect of sociodemographic factors on three-year survival of Iranian female patients with breast cancer diagnosed in 2006-2010

Introduction: Sociodemographic characteristics may be among major factors that influence breast cancer survival rate. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sociodemographic factors on 3-year survival of breast cancer in Iranian female patients. Materials and methods: 797 female patients were included in the study who were diagnosed with breast cancer during 2006-2010 and were registered in Cancer Research Center of Shohada-E-Tajrish Hospital. A descriptive cross-sectional study was designed and sociodemographic factors including age, marital status, level of education, district, home ownership and home size were collected through phone interviews. Analyzing the data was performed by use of two software; SPSS (version 18) and STATA (version 11) for fitting Kaplan- Meier and Cox regression and for testing PH assumption, respectively. Results: The rate of mortality among 797 patients was 12.2% after 3 years. The average age was 54.66± 11.86. The HR (Hazard Rate) of 3-year mortality of breast cancer was about 1.68 times (95% CI: 1.05 -2.69) for age ≥50 years to <50 years. The HR of 3-year mortality of breast cancer was higher in East (HR=2.76, P=0.04), Center (HR=4.87, P<0.01), and South (HR=4.59, P<0.01) in comparison with North of Tehran. The HR of 3-year mortality was about 2.58 times (95% CI: 1.03 -6.5) in patients educated lower than high school to patients educated in academic level. Conclusion: Sociodemographic factors may influence on breast cancer survival rate and improving these factors in the community may play a key role in decreasing mortality of patients dealing with this disease.

Keywords:

breast cancer , sociodemographic , survival , Iran