Social determinants of health and death by oral cancer in a unit of high complexity in oncology of a municipality of Bahia

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Social determinants may reflect on the occurrence, prognosis and mortality of oral cancer. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the main sociodemographic and life habits characteristics and the relation with death by oral cancer in a Unit of High Complexity in Oncology in the city of Feira de Santana, Bahia, from 2010 to 2016. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out by reviewing clinical records, followed by a descriptive analysis of the main variables, and a bivariate analysis between covariables considered social determinants and death by disease. All analyzes were performed with SPSS 22 and Stata 14.0. RESULTS: 282 cases of squamous cell carcinomas were diagnosed, mostly in the elderly (87.6%), males (79.6%), of urban origin, living in large and medium-sized, blacks and browns, married, with low schooling, with occupation, smokers (89.6%) and alcoholics (85.0%). The lesions were located mainly in the tongue region (37.9%), moderately differentiated (48.9%), diagnosed in advanced stages (III and IV) (84.7%), mostly treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy (34,3%) and 35.7% of the cases died. The race / color variable presented statistical significance with death from the disease (p = 0.006). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study revealed that, among the sociodemographic covariables and life habits, race / color showed a significant relation to death, indicating a worse prognosis related to blacks and browns patients.