Regional deprivation in Bavaria, Germany: linking a new deprivation score with registry data for lung and colorectal cancer

This study aimed to examine the differences in cancer risk by regional deprivation in Bavaria, Germany. Multilevel Poisson regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between lung and colorectal cancer risk and community deprivation level based on data from the Cancer Registry of Bavaria (2003-2006). The communities (n = 1,408) were classified according to the Bavarian Index of Multiple Deprivation (BIMD), differentiated into quintiles ranging from lowest to highest deprivation. Increased lung cancer risk in men and colorectal cancer risk in both genders were associated with increasing BIMD. Comparing the most deprived with the least deprived communities, the relative risk for lung cancer incidence in men was 1.39 (95% CI 1.29-1.49), for mortality risk 1.54 (95% CI 1.41-1.68). The relative risk for colorectal cancer incidence in men was 1.30 (95% CI 1.22-1.38) and in women 1.19 (95% CI 1.11-1.27); for mortality risk we found 1.57 (95% CI 1.40-1.76) in men and 1.34 (95% CI 1.19-1.51) in women. Area-based deprivation is significantly associated with cancer risk in Bavaria.