Sociodemographic, clinical, and family profile of women recently diagnosed with cancer

Abstract

In 2018, there were 227,920 deaths in Brazil due to neoplasms, 19,692 referring to the female population in the northwest of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is estimated that by 2020, 115,780 new cases of cancer affected the Brazilian female population, which justifies the main focus of the present study. This study assessed the association between the sociodemographic, clinical, and family characteristics of women recently diagnosed with cancer and their place of residence. This is a cross-sectional and observational study, in which data collection took place from August 2018 to January 2019 through the application of a questionnaire applied to 143 women recently diagnosed with cancer. These subjects were attended in a High Complexity Oncology Center (CACON) of a size IV general hospital (300 or more beds) which were subdivided into three groups: Rural, Urban without Rural Exposure, and Urban with Rural Exposure. It was found that 51% of women were under the age of 60 years old, and comorbidities such as obesity, depression, and breast cancer showed a significant association in relation to the place of residence (p=0.035, p=0.028 p=0.032, respectively). It is concluded that despite the urban environment providing greater infrastructure in the diagnosis, treatment, and measures to prevent the occurrence of cancer, urban, rural and women exposed to the rural environment, demonstrated similar occurrences for the incidence of some types of cancers.