6%) (data not shown). Patients with private insurance had a significantly lower proportion of females (53.7% versus 69.0%) and were more likely to be white (64.8% versus 27.6%) (data not shown). There were no statistical differences between patients under the age of 65 years

who had Medicare (disabled) and those who did not have Medicare (data not shown). Table 1 Demographic, clinical, and socioeconomic characteristics of 249 CRC patients according to p53 status As shown in Table 2, in unadjusted NSC-737664 analyses, the odds of having Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical p53nac for unemployed patients were 0.86 relative to employed patients (95% CI =0.52, 1.43). For patients with Medicaid coverage, the odds of having p53nac were 1.31 times higher than for patients without Medicaid (95% CI, 0.59,

2.91). No association was seen between private insurance coverage and p53nac prevalence (OR 0.94, 95% CI, 0.55, 1.58). Among patients under the age of 65, those with Medicare had 0.81 times the odds of having p53nac compared to patients without Medicare (95% CI, 0.25, 2.64). After Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical adjustment for age, sex, race and tumor stage, all ORs drew marginally closer to the null, except for the association with unemployment, which moved farther from the null (unadjusted OR 0.86 versus adjusted OR 0.74). Table 2 Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for the crude and adjusted associations between measures of SES and p53 abnormality Discussion Although the unadjusted Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and adjusted estimates for the association between the measures of SES with p53nac were not statistically significant, a weak association was detected among Medicaid recipients. Patients of low SES may experience different exposures (e.g., diet, infections, air quality, and other environmental exposures) that lead to abnormal p53. Patients with Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Medicaid coverage may be most representative

of low SES patients since Medicaid is typically provided only to low income individuals and families. For patients with Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Medicaid coverage, the odds of having p53nac were 1.28 times greater than for patients without Medicaid. This positive association supports our hypothesis that low SES patients have higher odds of p53 abnormalities. The finding, however, was not statistically significant. The other potential measures of SES did not support our hypothesis, but this may be due to limitations in obtaining SES information from medical records. Information on employment was available only in the medical records of individuals, and, since a higher proportion Carfilzomib of patients considered unemployed were females and older, these patients may have either had an employed spouse or have been retired and receiving retirement benefits. Therefore, unemployment as measured in this study may not have been a reliable indicator of low SES. For private insurance, actual rates of coverage vary substantially across plans, with variations in both employer and employee premium contributions and in cost-sharing amounts (14).