New research by Public Health Wales’ Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit (WCISU) found that people in Wales across different jobs, ethnicity, and housing situations are affected by cancer differently.
The report linked Wales’ 2011 Census data with cancer registry data, ensuring that it was kept anonymised and confidential, and then conducted analysis on how cancer rates varied by ethnicity, housing type, and occupation across the population of Wales.
The study found that hose living in overcrowded housing had a cancer rate seven times higher than those with two or more spare rooms, even after accounting for differences in age. Those who lived in social housing had a cancer rate almost three times higher than those who owned their own home.
While white people had the highest cancer rates overall, largely due to the older age of the white group, people from mixed ethnic backgrounds were more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage, potentially reducing cancer survival. Black men were more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and Asian women were more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer.
Those working in lower-paid and manual jobs, such as machine operatives, had the highest rates of cancer incidence, and more likely than those in professional roles to be diagnosed at a later stage.
Professor Dyfed Wyn Huws, director of the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit, said: “This is the first time we’ve been able to look at unfair inequalities in cancer rates through this level of detail using individual data across the whole of the Welsh population. It’s a major step forward in understanding and reducing cancer inequalities in our society.
“It has enabled us to get a much greater level of the detail of the socio-demographic factors at play, by looking at individual of household measures of inequality, rather than area-level analysis. It’s a strong baseline for future work and a clear call to action to focus on where cancer and other health inequalities start.
“In too many parts of Wales, the building blocks of health and wellbeing—such as healthy homes, good jobs, enough money to pay bills, connections with people in our communities, education and skills, and safe and clean environments—are not strong enough or are missing altogether. This leads to poorer health and lives being cut short, creating or worsening health inequalities (differences in health between groups of people and communities).
“Up to four in ten cases of cancer are potentially preventable amongst the population of Wales as a whole. Preventing cancer and achieving earlier diagnosis is a priority for everyone ini the system.”
