Influence of socioeconomic factors on cancer incidence and stage of melanoma in China

Background A high socioeconomic status (SES) was considered as an established risk factor for melanoma in western countries and areas, the same was not true in China. There have been few studies on SES of Chinese melanoma patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of SES in Chinese melanoma patients. Methods We performed a cross-sectional study using the data from Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China, and National Healthcare Security Administration. The clinical stage at diagnosis was categorized according to Guidelines of Chinese Society Oncology, Melanoma. Results We enrolled 122 patients with pathologic melanoma in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University between January 2013 to December 2017. 58 (48%) were male and 64 (52%) were female, the mean age was 59.23±9.91 years and median age was 60.5 years. Patients in 45-59 age group and 60-73 age group tend to have higher cancer incidence compared with other age groups. The acral lentiginous melanoma (48%) was the most common subtype. Patients with low education level (middle school and below) and low monthly household income (< 3000CNY) were associated with a greater risk of melanoma. Similar results were indicated for the patients who were unemployed. There were remarkable more patients who had medical insurance diagnosed with melanoma in this study. There was no significant difference on melanoma stage for patients with higher compared to lower education level ( p =0.153). For monthly household income, the Fish’s exact test indicated no significant difference in melanoma stage with p =0.507. No staging difference was observed between unemployed patients and employed patients ( p =0.687). Finally, statistically significant differences in melanoma staging were not indicated by a patient’s insurance status ( p =0.537). Conclusions For patients enrolled in our study, disadvantaged SES did not substantially lead to an increasing risk of melanoma incidence, and the effect of socioeconomic factors seemed uninfluenced the stage of melanoma.