Social inequality and incidence of and survival from lung cancer in a population-based study in Denmark, 1994-2003

We investigated the effects of socioeconomic, demographic and health-related indicators on the incidence of and survival from lung cancer diagnosed in Denmark in 1994-2003 with follow-up through 2006 using information from nationwide registers. The analyses were based on data on 21,492 patients with lung cancer in a cohort of 3.22 million persons born between 1925 and 1973 and aged ≥30 years. There was a general pattern of decreasing lung cancer incidence with increasing social advantage, being married and decreasing urbanicity. The presence of somatic or psychiatric disorders increased the incidence. The most advantaged groups of men had better short-term survival, and a similar tendency was seen for women. The relative 5-year survival after lung cancer was similarly low in most groups, 8% for men and 9% for women, except for groups of patients living in small apartments, with unknown tenure or schizophrenia and for divorced or single men.