NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While wealthier US men were more likely to die of cancer than poorer ones during the 1950s and 1960s, this trend was reversed in the 1970s and 1980s, a new analysis of census data shows.

The findings could lead to better cancer education and screening campaigns, and could also help gauge the effectiveness of current programs aimed at reducing cancer rates, according to Dr. Gopal K. Singh and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

While there is no shortage of cancer statistics, the new research is some of the first to focus on socioeconomic status and cancer in US men. Traditionally, cancer researchers investigate cancer rates based on gender, age, ethnicity and lifestyle habits, the authors note in their report, published in the June 19th issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In the current study, the investigators linked data on cancer deaths for men to county-by-county socioeconomic information. The researchers used data on family poverty rates, unemployment, housing values and costs, income and employment, as well as the percentage of homes without a telephone and without full plumbing, to rank all US counties into five socioeconomic categories.

Gopal's team reports that between 1950 and 1952, cancer death rates for men living in the wealthiest US counties were 49% higher than for those living in the poorest areas. By the late 1990s, the situation had reversed, with cancer deaths 19% higher among men living in the poorest areas compared with the wealthiest.

The researchers attribute the change to "social disparities in tobacco use, diet, exposure to environmental pollutants and access to and use of medical care."

Gopal and colleagues conclude that "reducing inequalities in education, income, housing and the workforce may thus be an important policy goal toward reducing health disparities including those in cancer mortality."

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002;94:904-915.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".