Educational inequality in female cancer mortality in Korea

We evaluated the influence of socioeconomic factors on female cancer mortality usingdeath data from the Cause of Death Statistics and the Korean Population and HousingCensus databases collected in 2001, 2006, and 2011. We estimated Relative Index ofInequality (RII) of female cancer mortality using Poisson regression analysis. RII greaterthan 1 indicates increased mortality risk for women at the lowest educational levelcompared with women at the highest educational level. The RII for cervical cancermortality was persistently greater than 1 for the entire study period, with a gradualincrease over time. Subgroup analysis stratified by age (25-44 and 45-64 yr) revealed thatyounger women had increased RIIs of mortality due to cervical cancer and ovarian cancerduring the entire study period. Older women had higher RII only for cervical cancermortality, but the value was much lower than that for younger women. The RII for breastcancer mortality was greater than 1 for younger women since 2006. In conclusion,socioeconomic inequality in female cancer mortality has persisted for the last decade inKorea, which was most evident for cervical cancer, and for younger women.