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Rural–urban disparities in stage of breast cancer at diagnosis in A ustralian women
Author(s) -
Leung Janni,
Martin Jennifer,
McLaughlin Deirdre
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
australian journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.48
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1584
pISSN - 1038-5282
DOI - 10.1111/ajr.12271
Subject(s) - breast cancer , medicine , cancer registry , psychological intervention , cancer , obesity , rural area , stage (stratigraphy) , residence , demography , population , marital status , cohort , public health , gerontology , environmental health , pathology , paleontology , psychiatry , sociology , biology
Objective To examine urban–rural differences and individual risk factors for a late stage of breast cancer at diagnosis in A ustralian women. Design Individual‐level longitudinal data were linked with cancer registry data from New South Wales (New South Wales Cancer Registry linked by the Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL)), Queensland (Queensland Cancer Registry) and Victoria (The Cancer Council Victoria). Setting Participants were drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health 1946‐1951 cohort (n = 13 715). Participants The sample included 195 women identified from the linked cancer registry data with a breast cancer diagnosis. Interventions Rural or urban residence was measured using Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia Plus (ARIA+). Individual characteristics and socio‐demographic variables examined included survey year, menopausal status, country of birth, education and marital status. Main outcome measures A late stage of breast cancer at diagnosis was defined based on the TNM Classification of Malignant Tumours. Results A late stage of breast cancer diagnosis was observed in 36% of women residing in urban areas and 40% of women residing in rural areas. After adjusting for individual characteristics, we found that obesity was the strongest risk factor for a late stage of breast cancer at diagnosis. Conclusions Given that women are becoming increasingly obese, and that the rate of obesity is higher in the A ustralian rural population, this paper provides further evidence for targeting interventions for obesity, particularly in rural A ustralia, as a public health priority.