Objectives: We evaluated the effects of socioeconomic status and comorbidity on stage of disease and survival among 1509 population-based prostate cancer patients.
Methods: We applied logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression to data from Whites, African Americans, and Asian Americans who were diagnosed from 1987 to 1991.
Results: Patients with existing comorbid conditions were less likely than those without these conditions to be diagnosed with advanced cancer. Compared with Whites, African Americans (odds ratio [OR] = 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1, 2.2) and foreign-born Asian Americans (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.0, 2.4) were more likely to be diagnosed with advanced cancer. Among men with localized disease, prostate cancer death rates were higher for African Americans than for Whites (death rate ratio = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.2, 4.7).
Conclusions: These findings support the need for further investigation of factors that affect access to and use of health care among African Americans and Asian Americans.