Health Inequality, Cancer and Social Trust

Increasing concerns about origins of health inequality in societies has drawn attentions to social determinants of health. Social trust can be a social determinant of health and cancer. Social and medical sciences together can increase the understanding of disease to higher levels. The main objective of this investigation is study of health inequality and the role of social trust in getting affected by colon, breast and thyroid cancer, among thepatients referred to cancer institute of Tehran. This research was an analytic-descriptive study in which 176 people in equal groups of affected persons (case) and non-affected persons (control) have been studied. The classified sampling method was used. Measuring of social trust was done based on twenty questions made by the researcher. The data collected through structured questionnaire was analyzed using SPSS 17.0 statistical analysis software, discriminant analysis, canonicalcorrelation analysis and logistic regression analysis methods. The results indicated weak association between social trust components and each of colon, breast and thyroid cancers, and that the effect of social trust components and its association with colon, breast and thyroid cancers were not meaningful. In the meantime, the system trust component indicated a meaningful positive effect on incident of being affected by breast cancer. Finding indicated that social trust was not a valid social determinant for health inequality in affection to cancer.