The effect of the socio-economic status on the investigation time of patients with lung cancer a register based cohort-study

Abstract

Abstract Background The purpose of this nationwide population-based study is to investigate whether the time length of the primary investigation for lung cancer is longer for patients with a low socio-economic position than for patients with a high socio-economic position. Materials and Methods This retrospective register study was based on all lung cancer patients in Denmark who were diagnosed in 2012–2017, in total 28,431 patients. We used an adjusted logistic regression model and adjusted zero-inflated negative binomial model to estimate the effect of vulnerable socio economic factors on the time length of the primary investigation. Results We found that patients’ income and difficulty of transport have a significant influence on time length of the primary investigation. The chance to carry out the investigation process within 24 days is higher for patients with a high income (adjusted OR = 0.86 with 95% CI (0.81; 0.91)), whereas the chance to carry out the investigation process within 24 days for patients with troublesome transport is lower (adjusted OR = 0.67 with 95% CI (0.61; 0.72)). Conclusion Our study showed that the individual socio-economic position has an influence on the time length of the primary lung cancer investigation.