Cancer stages and mortality risk of breast cancer between women with and without disabilities: A national population-based cohort study in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: The second-most common cause of cancer-related death for women worldwide is breast cancer. However, there is little information about breast cancer among women with disabilities in Taiwan. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated differences between women with and without disabilities regarding breast cancer stages and evaluated the probability of developing an advanced stage and the mortality risk of breast cancer. METHODS: This study conducted a nationwide retrospective cohort study using the National Health Insurance Research Database and other nationwide databases. Our participants were newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, including women with and without disabilities, between 2004 and 2010. We matched both of them with propensity score matching methods (1:5), and all were followed up until the end of 2016. RESULTS: This study included 50,683 participants with breast cancer. After matching, women with disabilities who did not receive breast cancer screening had a more significant proportion of advanced-stage breast cancer (19.95 %) than those without disabilities who did not receive breast cancer screening (16.87 %). After adjusting for related variables, women with disabilities were 1.27 times more likely to have advanced-stage breast cancer than those without disabilities. Additionally, after suffering from breast cancer, individuals with disabilities had a 1.23 times greater mortality risk compared to those without disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Although cancer stages were controlled, women with disabilities still had a higher mortality risk of breast cancer. Hence, policymakers should pay more attention to women with disabilities to treat them at an early stage, which can reduce the mortality risk attributable to advanced stages.

Inequality in the Utilization of Breast Cancer Screening between Women with and without Disabilities in Taiwan: A Propensity-Score-Matched Nationwide Cohort Study.

Because of the difficulties in accessing medical care, the likelihood of receiving breast cancer screening may be low for women with disabilities. We aimed to investigate differences in the utilization of breast cancer screening among women with and without disabilities. Participants included women with and without disabilities from 2004 to 2010, and it was observed whether the participants had received a breast cancer screening during 2011 and 2012. Propensity-score matching was employed to match disabled women with non-disabled women (1:1). Data sources included the National Health Insurance Research Database, the Cancer Screening Database, and the Disability Registration File. Conditional logistic regression was performed to examine the odds ratios (ORs) that both groups would undergo breast cancer screening. The proportion of women with disabilities who received breast cancer screening was 18.33%, which was significantly lower than that of women without disabilities (25.52%) (p < 0.001). Women with dementia had the lowest probability of receiving a mammography examination (OR = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.28−0.43), followed by those with multiple disabilities (OR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.40−0.47) and intellectual disabilities (OR = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.41−0.50). In conclusion, compared to women without disabilities, those with disabilities were less likely to undergo breast cancer screening.

Incidence, risk, and associated risk factors of stroke among people with different disability types and severities: A national population-based cohort study in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: The number of people with disabilities is increasing. People with disabilities are more likely to be physically inactive, which can lead to chronic diseases, including stroke. Stroke is a leading cause of illness and death worldwide, but little is known regarding stroke among people with disabilities. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence density rate, relative risk, and associated risk factors of stroke and measure the risk of death due to stroke among people with disabilities in Taiwan. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used nationwide data from the National Health Insurance Research Database, National Disability Registry Database, and Cause of Death File. Incidence density rates of stroke were estimated as new cases per 1000 person-years. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the relative risk of stroke, adjusted survival curves, and adjusted cumulative incidence curves. RESULTS: A total of 670,630 people with disabilities were included in our analyses. The average person-years of observation was 9.43 ± 5.31, with a yearly rate of 16.72 new cases of stroke per 1000 person-years. The highest risk of stroke was found among people with balance disorder (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.00-2.57) and intractable epilepsy (HR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.56-2.19). The highest risk of death due to stroke was found among people with dementia and multiple disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Stroke rates were higher among people with disabilities than among the general population, and certain disabilities were associated with a higher stroke risk and death rate.

Burden of disease attributed to ambient air pollution in Thailand: A GIS-based approach.

BACKGROUND: Growing urbanisation and population requiring enhanced electricity generation as well as the increasing numbers of fossil fuel in Thailand pose important challenges to air quality management which impacts on the health of the population. Mortality attributed to ambient air pollution is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). We estimated the spatial pattern of mortality burden attributable to selected ambient air pollution in 2009 based on the empirical evidence in Thailand. METHODS: We estimated the burden of disease attributable to ambient air pollution based on the comparative risk assessment (CRA) framework developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD). We integrated geographical information systems (GIS)-based exposure assessments into spatial interpolation models to estimate ambient air pollutant concentrations, the population distribution of exposure and the concentration-response (CR) relationship to quantify ambient air pollution exposure and associated mortality. We obtained air quality data from the Pollution Control Department (PCD) of Thailand surface air pollution monitoring network sources and estimated the CR relationship between relative risk (RR) and concentration of air pollutants from the epidemiological literature. RESULTS: We estimated 650-38,410 ambient air pollution-related fatalities and 160-5,982 fatalities that could have been avoided with a 20 reduction in ambient air pollutant concentrations. The summation of population-attributable fraction (PAF) of the disease burden for all-causes mortality in adults due to NO2 and PM2.5 were the highest among all air pollutants at 10% and 7.5%, respectively. The PAF summation of PM2.5 for lung cancer and cardiovascular disease were 16.8% and 14.6% respectively and the PAF summations of mortality attributable to PM10 was 3.4% for all-causes mortality, 1.7% for respiratory and 3.8% for cardiovascular mortality, while the PAF summation of mortality attributable to NO2 was 7.8% for respiratory mortality in Thailand. CONCLUSION: Mortality due to ambient air pollution in Thailand varies across the country. Geographical distribution estimates can identify high exposure areas for planners and policy-makers. Our results suggest that the benefits of a 20% reduction in ambient air pollution concentration could prevent up to 25% of avoidable fatalities each year in all-causes, respiratory and cardiovascular categories. Furthermore, our findings can provide guidelines for future epidemiological investigations and policy decisions to achieve the SDGs.