People with annual incomes above $75,000 may be more likely to be diagnosed with cancer, according to a perspective paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
For the analysis, researchers examined incidence and mortality trends for breast cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer and melanoma. The researchers juxtaposed this information against U.S. census data from the year 2000.
Counties with median incomes greater than $75,000 had a higher incidence rate for the four cancers than counties where the median income is less than $40,000. However, the mortality rate for these cancers was comparable between high-income and low-income counties, suggesting the overall burden of disease is analogous across the economic spectrum.
"If we want to move toward more sustainable and affordable healthcare systems, we're going to have to understand what's driving the overutilization of care and develop better ways to address it," said study author Elliott Fisher, MD, director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Lebanon, N.H.
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