title: Urbanization and cancer:  changing mortality patterns?
abstract: "Analysis of the relationship between cancer rates and urbanization for United States counties for the period 1950-54 reveals the expected urban/rural differences for many digestive, urinary and respiratory organ cancers and for female breast cancer.  Similar urban/rural differences existed in many other Western countries.  By 1970-75, however, urban/rural differences in the United States had substantially narrowed."  It is noted that "available data do not allow formal tests of the relationship between these changes and specific etiological factors, but the data suggest that the spatial convergence is related to the changing geography of such risk factors as smoking, alcohol consumption, manufacturing, and socioeconomic status and to the diminished size and role of the white foreign-born population, as well as to such confounding factors as medical practices and population migration."
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000569:Americas; D002423:Cause of Death; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D004194:Disease; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005843:Geography; D006296:Health Services; D007221:Industry; D009026:Mortality; D009369:Neoplasms; D009656:North America; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012106:Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012424:Rural Population; D012907:Smoking; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population; D014507:Urbanization
keywords: Alcohol Drinking; Americas; Cancer; Causes Of Death; Comparative Studies; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Developing Countries; Differential Mortality; Diseases; Geographic Factors; Health Services; Industry; Migration; Mortality--changes; Neoplasms; North America; Northern America; Population; Population Characteristics; Population Dynamics; Research Methodology; Residence Characteristics; Rural Population; Smoking; Socioeconomic Status; Spatial Distribution; Studies; United States; Urban Population; Urban Spatial Distribution; Urbanization