The Impact of Socioeconomic Variables Status on Bladder Cancer Treatment Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Social inequalities are concerning along the bladder cancer (BC) continuum especially within the malignancy outcomes and treatment effects and complications. Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis and its variants have uncovered major inequalities between communities and added more pressure on socioeconomic (SE) status along with the COVID-19-associated variants. Within this global situation, discerning the societal risk factors that render specific communities vulnerable is crucial to ensure more effective management of BC malignancy. In this paper, we aimed to investigate the status and the impact of SE variables and disparities on BC survival as reported in recent studies and give an update on the impact of social environment on treatment outcomes within COVID-19 pandemic. Several studies showed that SE status is a significant predictor of survival for BC patients. Recent evidence found that BC outcomes are directly affected by social deprivation. Our results confirm that there are major and recurrent SE disparities in BC survival. Together, the findings demonstrate the considerable impact in public data-based centers, albeit reportings are partial and inaccurate, of SE and health inequities in severely segregated neighborhoods under the weight of the COVID-19. The findings show the major influence of healthcare inequalities SE deprivation in a distinctly segregated community within the COVID-19 burden and death in centers according to public statistics, even if reports are unfinished and partial.