Hanna Eriksson, Eva Månsson-Brahme, Margareta Frohm-Nilsson, and Johan Hansson, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital Solna, Stockholm; Johan Lyth and Christer Lindholm, Regional Cancer Center Southeast, Linköping University Hospital; Johan Lyth and John Carstensen, Linköping University, Linköping; Christian Ingvar, Lund University, Lund; Peter Naredi, Sahlgrenska Academy; and Ulrika Stierner, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
To investigate the association between cohabitation status, clinical stage at diagnosis, and disease-specific survival in cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM).
This nationwide population-based study included 27,235 patients from the Swedish Melanoma Register diagnosed with a primary invasive CMM between 1990 and 2007 and linked data to nationwide, population-based registers followed up through 2012.
After adjustment for age at diagnosis, level of education, living area, period of diagnosis, and tumor site, the odds ratios (ORs) of higher stage at diagnosis were significantly increased among men living alone versus men living with a partner (stage II v stage I: OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.29 to 1.57; stage III or IV v stage I: OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.79). The OR for stage II versus stage I disease was also increased among women living alone (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.28). After adjustments for the factors listed earlier, the CMM-specific survival was significantly decreased among men living alone (hazard ratio [HR] for death, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.33 to 1.65; P