title: Higher lung cancer rates in young women than young men: Tasmania, 1983 to 1992.
abstract: In a background of changing lung cancer rates in the past decade, mean incidence and mortality rates for persons aged 25-44 in Tasmania for the decade 1983 through 1992 were examined using Tasmanian Cancer Registry data. The smoking behavior of Tasmanian adults and schoolchildren was also investigated, using data from a social survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and from five secondary school smoking surveys. The Tasmanian age-standardized lung cancer incidence rates in 25-44 year olds for the 10-year period were 6.2 per 100,000 females and 3.3 per 100,000 males. Mean rates of incidence were higher for females than for males (P = 0.02). The corresponding mortality rates were 4.2 in females and 2.4 in males (P = 0.08). The prevalence of smoking by adult Tasmanian women is higher than that for other Australian women (P < 0.05), and their duration of smoking is longer (P < 0.01). Tasmanian schoolgirls have a higher smoking prevalence than Australian mainland schoolgirls (P = 0.01) and higher prevalence than Tasmanian schoolboys (P = 0.01). The data suggest that smoking prevalence among teenagers passed that for males only a decade before the observed excess of female incident cases among 25-44 year olds in Tasmania.
authors.affiliation: Menzies Centre for Population Health Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dwyer
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blizzard
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shugg
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: M Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Ansari
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D018287:Carcinoma, Large Cell / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D013648:Tasmania / Q000453:epidemiology