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Skin Cancer: Module
5
Crude Incidence Rates Exercise
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Question 1: What
does "age-specific" mean in this chart? What is in the numerator and in
the denominator? How are "age-adjusted" incidence rates different from
"age-specific" incidence rates? What might be the advantage of looking
at age-specific rates on lung and bronchus cancer?
Answer:
In
this chart, age-specific incidence rates reflect the number of cases of
lung and bronchus cancer in a particular age group. To find age-specific
incidence rates of lung and bronchus cancer:
- The numerator
is the number of cases in the age group.
- The denominator
is the number of people in that age group included in the study.
Age-adjusted
incidence rates are not limited to a particular age group. Instead they
let us compare overall rates between populations with different age distributions.
Understanding age-specific rates helps us judge the risk and public health
impact of this disease on a population. It helps us target resources for
prevention, screening, and treatment.
Question 2: What
happens to the incidence of lung and bronchus cancer as people get older?
Answer:
Rates
of lung and bronchus cancer go up rapidly from the mid-30s to the mid-to-late
70s. Rates go down slightly in people over 80 years. These statements
are true for all sub-populations.
Question 3: What
can you say about lung and bronchus cancer incidence rates among men compared
to women? Among black men compared to white men? Among black women compared
to white women? What factors might explain these differences?
Answer:
Answers
should include—
- The rate
of lung and bronchus cancer is highest in black males, followed by white
males.
- Black
and white females have similar rates of this cancer. But their cancer
rates are lower than men of either race.
Reasons for
these differences may include—
- different
rates and types of tobacco use (These may be caused by social factors,
culture, advertising, type/quality/availability of tobacco products,
etc.)
- different
rates of environmental exposure to cigarette smoke and other carcinogens
- access
to counseling and/or social support to quit smoking
- access
to primary health care, etc.
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