Cent Eur J Public Health 2009, 17(3):115-121 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3516

Socioeconomic Indicators and Risk of Lung Cancer in Central and Eastern Europe

Františka Hrubá1, Eleonóra Fabiánová1, Vladimír Bencko2, Adrian Cassidy3, Jolanta Lissowska4, Dana Mates5, Péter Rudnai6, David Zaridze7, Lenka Foretová8, Vladimír Janout9, Neonilia Szeszenia-Dabrowska10, Paul Brennan11, Paolo Boffetta11
1 Regional Authority of Public Health, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
2 Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
3 Roy Castle Lung Cancer Research Programme, University of Liverpool Cancer Research Centre, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
4 Cancer Center and M.Sklodowska-Currie Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland
5 Institute of Public Health, Bucharest, Romania
6 National Institute of Environmental Health, Budapest, Hungary
7 Cancer Research Centre, Moscow, Russia
8 Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, Brno, Czech Republic
9 Faculty of Medicine, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
10 Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland
11 International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

Background: Social inequalities have been shown to contribute to the risk of lung cancer in industrialized countries, but it is unclear whether they also play a role in former socialist countries of Europe.

Methods: A case-control study involving 3,403 cases and 3,670 controls was conducted in Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia), Russia, and in the UK. Indicators of socioeconomic status, including education and white/blue collar occupation based on lifetime occupations were analysed as indicators of risk factors for lung cancer development, after adjustment for tobacco smoking and exposure to occupational carcinogens.

Results: Both indicators of socioeconomic status: low education and blue collar occupations were found as significant risk factors for lung cancer in men. The odds ratio of lung cancer for blue collar occupations compared to white collar occupations was 1.37 (95% confidence interval 1.15-1.62), that for low education compared to high education (analysis restricted to Central European countries) was 1.35 (95% confidence interval 1.03-1.77). No such effects were observed in women.

Conclusions: The confirmation of the significant inverse association between the indicators of socioeconomic status and lung cancer risk in men may serve as a strong incentive for adoption of occupational and public health measures in lung cancer prevention.

Keywords: lung cancer, socioeconomic status, indicators, white/ blue collar occupation, education

Received: September 5, 2008; Revised: February 24, 2009; Accepted: February 24, 2009; Published: September 1, 2009  Show citation

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Hrubá F, Fabiánová E, Bencko V, Cassidy A, Lissowska J, Mates D, et al.. Socioeconomic Indicators and Risk of Lung Cancer in Central and Eastern Europe. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2009;17(3):115-121. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3516. PubMed PMID: 20020599.
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