Survival of breast cancer patients in Connecticut in relation to socioeconomic and health care access indicators.

The purpose of this study of 16,931 black and white Connecticut women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 1988-1995 was to examine survival in relation to surrogate or proxy indicators of both socioeconomic status (SES) and access to primary care. Patients were followed through 1998, and the risk of death was elevated for the lowest (vs. highest) SES category independent of stage at diagnosis and other characteristics, especially among patients diagnosed before age 65 years. The health care access indicator was not associated with risk of death when other patient characteristics (including the SES variable and stage at diagnosis) were taken into account. Unexplained elevations, relative to the rest of the state, in risk of death were found for patients diagnosed while living in two of the state's four largest cities.