Rural-urban disparities in cardiovascular and other competing risk of death among cancer patients

Rural-urban disparity of cancer is a major public health problem, with an unclear gap in noncancer death. It is important to evaluate rural-urban disparities in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and other competing death among cancer patients.

Observing urban-rural disparities and trends in noncancer deaths in the U.S. cancer population.

To address rural-urban disparities, we used proportions of deaths, age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR), cumulative mortality rates, subdistribution hazard ratio (sHR), standardized mortality ratios (SMRs), absolute excess risks (AERs) and mediation analysis.

Between 1990 and 2017, there were 2,022,482 patients of 24 cancer sites, with a median follow-up of 11·8 years. Rural proportions of noncancer and CVD deaths in cancer patients were higher than urban ones. Rural AAMR of noncancer and CVD deaths surpassed urban one in cancer patients, who had higher cumulative mortality rates than urban counterparts in noncancer (sHR:1·21, 95 % confidence interval [CI]:1·19-1·22), CVDs (sHR:1·25, 95 % CI: 1·23-1·28), diabetes mellitus (sHR:1·24, 95 % CI:1·15-1·34), Alzheimer's disease (sHR:1·30, 95 % CI:1·21-1·39), pneumonia and influenza (sHR:1·30, 95 % CI:1·21-1·39) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and allied cond (sHR:1·32, 95 % CI:1·26-1·39). Compared with the general population, both rural (SMR:4·58, AER:218·03) and urban (SMR: 3·74, AER: 166·61) cancer patients had higher risks of noncancer death. Mediation analyses identified median household income and SEER stages as the mediators.

Rural cancer patients had higher risks of noncancer death than urban counterparts, especially CVD-related deaths. Future targeted policy and public health interventions are needed to diminish the rural-urban gap in such death disparities.