Assessing social vulnerabilities of salivary gland cancer care, prognosis, and treatment in the United States
Assessing social vulnerabilities of salivary gland cancer care, prognosis, and treatment in the United States

Assessing social vulnerabilities of salivary gland cancer care, prognosis, and treatment in the United States

Head Neck. 2024 Apr 23. doi: 10.1002/hed.27783. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Salivary gland cancers (SGC)-social determinants of health (SDoH) investigations are limited by narrow scopes of SGC-types and SDoH. This Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)-study hypothesized that socioeconomic status (SES) most contributed to SDoH-associated SGC-disparities.

METHODS: Retrospective cohort of 24 775 SGCs assessed SES, minority-language status (ML), household composition (HH), housing-transportation (HT), and composite-SDoH measured by the SVI via regressions with surveillance and survival length, late-staging presentation, and treatment (surgery, radio-, chemotherapy) receipt.

RESULTS: Increasing social vulnerability showed decreases in surveillance/survival; increased odds of advanced-presenting-stage (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.17), chemotherapy receipt (OR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.23); decreased odds of primary surgery (0.89, 0.84, 0.94), radiotherapy (0.91, 0.85, 0.97, p = 0.003) for SGCs. Trends were differentially correlated with SES, ML, HH, and HT-vulnerabilities.

CONCLUSIONS: Through quantifying SDoH-derived SGC-disparities, the SVI can guide targeted initiatives against SDoH that elicit the most detrimental associations for specific sociodemographics.

PMID:38651501 | DOI:10.1002/hed.27783