The relation of population density and socioeconomic status to cancer incidence in Louisiana's African-American and white populations
Description
Data from the Louisiana Tumor Registry for the years 1988-1992 were used to describe the relationship between the rates of five selected cancer sites (leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer) and urbanization status while controlling for the effects of age, race, sex and socioeconomic status. Population density measurements for each of Louisiana's 64 parishes were used to define urbanization status. The census derived percent of the population below poverty level (SES) was used to define socioeconomic status. The SES variable is race-specific. For each race-sex combination, multiple regression analysis was performed in order to describe the relationship between each selected cancer site and the log of the population density while controlling for the effect of SES. The incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma increased with increasing population density in white males. Breast cancer incidence increased with increasing population density in white and black females. Prostate cancer incidence increased with increasing population density in white males. The rates of leukemia and cervical cancer were not associated with population density. However, the rate of cervical cancer increased with increasing percent poverty in white females even after adjusting for population density. SES was associated with breast cancer in white females, but not after adjusting for population density. It is hypothesized that SES was not statistically significant in black females for breast or cervical cancer because the prevalence of poverty was above the threshold for which the rates of these cancers may be constant