Relation between population density and cancer incidence, Illinois, 1986-1990.
Many investigators have examined urbanization gradients in cancer rates. The authors used incidence data for 1986 through 1990 from the Illinois State Cancer Registry, a large, population-based incidence registry, to identify race-specific, urban-rural trends in cancer rates. Using population density, they categorized an urbanization gradient into four groups. Five-year, average annual age-adjusted, site-specific incidence rates were calculated for all sex-race strata within each population density group. Monotonic and statistically significant cancer incidence trends across all race-sex groups were found for cancers of the esophagus, liver, lung, female breast and cervix, male prostate, nervous system, non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, and all cancers combined. No trend was observed for blacks that was not also seen for whites; however, significant trends for cancer of the pancreas and Hodgkin's disease were seen for whites but not for blacks. Colon cancer in males was the only sex-specific trend in cancer that can occur in both sexes. Analytic studies for sites with consistent urban-rural trends across all race-sex groups may be fruitful in identifying the aspect of population density, or other unmeasured factor, that contribute to these trends.
Howe
H L
HL
Division of Epidemiologic Studies, Illinois Department of Public Health, Springfield 62761.
Keller
J E
JE
Lehnherr
M
M
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D011156:Population Density; D044469:Racial Groups; D012042:Registries; D012423:Rural Health; D012737:Sex Factors; D014504:Urban Health