Primary and secondary care management of women with early breast cancer from affluent and deprived areas: retrospective review of hospital and general practice records

Women with breast cancer receive the same quality of NHS care regardless of whether they live in deprived or affluent areas, shows a study in this week's BMJ.

A team of researchers, led by Una Macleod of Glasgow University, investigated the care received by 386 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992-93 living in the most affluent and the most deprived areas of Glasgow. Hospital and general practice records were reviewed to obtain information about access to care and treatment received. Despite women from deprived areas having poorer survival from breast cancer, the findings reveal no difference in access to hospital care or in the quality of treatment received by women with breast cancer from affluent and deprived areas.

However, in this study, women from deprived areas were more likely to be admitted to hospital with problems unrelated to breast cancer and they consulted their general practitioner more frequently in the two years following their initial treatment. This, say the authors, suggests that individuals from deprived communities have generally poorer health compared with affluent groups and therefore may explain the difference in survival amongst these women.

Contact:

Una Macleod, Cancer Research Campaign research fellow in primary care oncology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 0RR Email: u.macleod@clinmed.gla.ac.uk