Differences in Marital Status and Mortality by Race/Ethnicity and Nativity Among California Cancer Patients

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Cancer
• Personal Author:
  Martìnez, Marìa Elena ; Anderson, Kristin ; Murphy, James D. ; Hurley, Susan ; Canchola, Alison J. ; Keegan, Theresa H. M. ; Cheng, Iona ; Clarke, Christina A. ; Glaser, Sally L. ; Gomez, Scarlett L.
• Description:
  Background ; It has been observed that married cancer patients have lower mortality rates than unmarried patients, but data for different racial/ethnic groups are scarce. The authors examined the risk of overall mortality associated with marital status across racial/ethnic groups and sex in data from the California Cancer Registry. ; Methods ; California Cancer Registry data for all first primary invasive cancers diagnosed from 2000 through 2009 for the 10 most common sites of cancer-related death for non-Hispanic whites (NHWs), blacks, Asians/Pacific Islanders (APIs), and Hispanics were used to estimate multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for marital status in relation to overall mortality by race/ethnicity and sex. The study cohort included 393,470 male and 389,697 female cancer patients and 204,007 and 182,600 deaths from all causes, respectively, through December 31, 2012. ; Results ; All-cause mortality was higher in unmarried patients than in married patients, but there was significant variation by race/ethnicity. Adjusted HRs (95% CIs) ranged from 1.24 (95% CI, 1.23-1.26) in NHWs to 1.11 (95% CI, 1.07-1.15) in APIs among males and from 1.17 (95% CI, 1.15-1.18) in NHWs to 1.07 (95% CI, 1.04-1.11) in APIs among females. All-cause mortality associated with unmarried status compared with married status was higher in US-born API and Hispanic men and women relative to their foreign-born counterparts. ; Conclusions ; For patients who have the cancers that contribute most to mortality, being unmarried is associated with worse overall survival compared with being married, with up to 24% higher mortality among NHW males but only 6% higher mortality among foreign-born Hispanic and API females. Future research should pursue the identification of factors underlying these associations to inform targeted interventions for unmarried cancer patients.
• Subjects:
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Racial Groups
  • Ethnicity
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Marital Status
  More +
• Source:
  Cancer. 122(10):1570-1578.
• Pubmed ID:
  27065455
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5523959
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  HHSN261201000035C/PC,CA/None/None ; HHSN261201000140C/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; HHSN261201000035I/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; P30 CA023100/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; HHSN261201000034C/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U58 DP003862/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  California
• Volume:
  122
• Issue:
  10
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/46888/cdc_46888_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 123.22 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:fc9c508029497473b2f8b6163cc908822a397a03cfc2a04b1d7c48531d3533fa