Abstract
We investigated postoperative mortality in relation to socioeconomic status (SES)
in electively operated colorectal cancer patients, and evaluated whether social inequalities
were explained by factors related to patient, disease or treatment. Data from the
nationwide database of Danish Colorectal Cancer Group were linked to individual socioeconomic
information in Statistics Denmark. Patients born before 1921 and those having local
surgical or palliative procedures were excluded. A total of 7160 patients, operated
on in the period 2001–2004, were included, of whom 342 (4.8%) died within 30 days
of surgery. Postoperative mortality was significantly lower in patients with high
income (odds ratio (OR) = 0.82 (0.70–0.95) for each increase in annual income of EUR 13,500), higher education
versus short education (OR) = 0.60 (0.41–0.87), and owner-occupied versus rental housing (OR) = 0.73 (0.58–0.93). Differences in comorbidity and to a lesser extent lifestyle characteristics
accounted for the excess risk of postoperative death among low-SES patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 12, 2009
Accepted:
November 25,
2008
Received in revised form:
November 18,
2008
Received:
October 10,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Elsevier Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
