This study examined the impact of the Human Development Index (HDI) on the incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) rates of breast and gynecologic cancers in women worldwide. We obtained the 2021 cancer rates by country from the Global Burden of Disease website. Using relative concentration indices and concentration curves, we measured socioeconomic inequality in the mortality, incidence, and DALY rates of these four cancers. We also grouped countries based on their socioeconomic status as measured by the Human Development Index. The incidence, mortality, and DALY rates of uterine and ovarian cancer show higher values in countries with higher levels of HDI (all concentration indices were significantly higher than zero). On the other hand, the incidence, mortality and DALY rates of cervical cancer were more concentrated in countries with lower levels of HDI (all concentration indices were significantly less than zero). No socioeconomic inequality was observed in breast cancer mortality (RCI = 0, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.03 to 0.04), there was no significant inequality in breast cancer DALY rates (RCI = 0.02, 95% CI: -0.02 to 0.06), and only breast cancer incidence was significantly concentrated in countries with a high HDI (RCI = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.13). Our study showed that socioeconomic inequalities exist in the distribution of mortality and morbidity from breast and gynecological cancers. Health care policies and facilities to reduce socioeconomic inequalities should focus on areas of high burden.
Salehi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.