Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Ulster Medical Journal logoLink to The Ulster Medical Journal
. 1991 Oct;60(2):137–149.

Geographical variations and recent trends in cancer mortality in Northern Ireland (1979-88).

C C Patterson 1, F Kee 1
PMCID: PMC2448656  PMID: 1785146

Abstract

Cancer mortality in the 35-74 year age-range for selected sites during the period 1979-88 was investigated for the 26 district council areas of Northern Ireland. Trends in rates during the period were also studied and compared with trends in an earlier period, and with trends reported from the rest of the United Kingdom. Statistically significant differences between the age-standardised death rates in the 26 areas were observed for stomach cancer (women only), pancreatic cancer (women only), lung cancer (men and women) and for all cancers (men and women). Some evidence of spatial aggregation of rates was apparent for ovarian cancer even though rates in the 26 areas did not differ significantly. The patterns are illustrated with maps and some difficulties of interpretation are discussed. Mortality rates for oesophageal cancer increased during the period in both sexes while rates for stomach cancer decreased. Colon cancer rates increased significantly only in men, while an increase in lung cancer rates was confined to women. The mortality from all cancers increased significantly during the period by 0.8% per annum in men and 0.9% per annum in women. These trends were found to be broadly comparable with those reported elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Full text

PDF
137

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Coggon D., Osmond C., Barker D. J. Stomach cancer and migration within England and Wales. Br J Cancer. 1990 Apr;61(4):573–574. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1990.128. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Davis D. L., Hoel D., Fox J., Lopez A. International trends in cancer mortality in France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, England and Wales, and the USA. Lancet. 1990 Aug 25;336(8713):474–481. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(90)92020-i. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Gaffey W. R. A critique of the standardized mortality ratio. J Occup Med. 1976 Mar;18(3):157–160. doi: 10.1097/00043764-197603000-00007. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gavin A., Evans A. E. The Northern Ireland Cancer Registry. Ulster Med J. 1988 Oct;57(2):129–136. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Karjalainen S. Geographical variation in cancer patient survival in Finland: chance, confounding, or effect of treatment? J Epidemiol Community Health. 1990 Sep;44(3):210–214. doi: 10.1136/jech.44.3.210. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Rosén M., Nyström L., Wall S. Guidelines for regional mortality analysis: an epidemiological approach to health planning. Int J Epidemiol. 1985 Jun;14(2):293–299. doi: 10.1093/ije/14.2.293. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. West R. R. High death rates: more deaths or earlier deaths? J R Coll Physicians Lond. 1987 Jan;21(1):73–76. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Williams A. N., Johnson R. A., Bender A. P. Use of coded mortality data to assess area cancer rates: impact of residence reporting and coding errors. Am J Epidemiol. 1990 Jul;132(1 Suppl):S178–S182. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115780. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Ulster Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of Ulster Medical Society

RESOURCES