Using ecological socioeconomic position (SEP) measures to deal with sample bias introduced by incomplete individual-level measures: inequalities in breast cancer stage at diagnosis as an example

摘要

BackgroundWhen studying the influence of socioeconomic position (SEP) on health from data where individual-level SEP measures may be missing, ecological measures of SEP may prove helpful. In this paper, we illustrate the best use of ecological-level measures of SEP to deal with incomplete individual level data. To do this we have taken the example of a study examining the relationship between SEP and breast cancer (BC) stage at diagnosis.