Breast cancer and socio-economic factors


https://doi.org/10.4081/wpph.2012.6773
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Authors

  • Anees B. Chagpar
    anees.chagpar@yale.edu
    YALE UNIVERSITY -- THE BREAST CENTER -- SMILOW CANCER HOSPITAL AT YALE-NEW HAVEN, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, United States.
  • Mario Coccia CNR -- NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF ITALY & GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Institute for Economic Research on Firm and Growth Collegio Carlo Alberto, Moncalieri (TO), Italy.
Purpose: The aim of this study is twofold – on the one hand, to analyze the relationship between incidence of breast cancer, income per capita and medical equipment across countries; after that, the study here discusses the drivers of the incidence of breast cancer across countries in order to pinpoint differences and similarities. Methods: The indicators used are incidence of breast cancer based on Age-standardized rate (ASW); Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita by purchasing power parity (current international $); computed tomography (CT) for cancer diagnosis. Data include 52 countries. The statistical analysis is carried out by correlation, ANOVA and an econometric modeling based on a multiple regression model of the breast cancer incidence on two explanatory variables. Results: Partial correlation is higher: rbreast cancer, GDP  CT=60.3% (sign.0.00). The estimated relationship shows an expected incidence of breast cancer increase of approximately 0.05% for a GDP increase of 1% and an expected incidence of breast cancer increase of approximately 3.23% for a CT increase of 1%. ANOVA confirms that incidence of breast cancer is higher across richer countries, ceteris paribus. Conclusions: Empirical evidence shows that the breast cancer tends to be higher across richer countries, measured by GDP per capita and number of Computed Tomography. The main determinants of these findings can be due to several socio-economic factors, mainly localized in richer countries. In addition, this research may provide an alternative interpretation to the theory of Oh et al. (2010) on the influence of latitude on breast cancer, focusing on socio-economic factors rather than biologic root causes.