STATISTICALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES OF GEOGRAPHIC MORTALITY PROFILES

  • 1 May 1987
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 78  (5) , 805-815
Abstract
The spatial variation of site-specific cancer mortality rates at the county or state economic area level can provide a) insights into possible etiologic factors and b) the basis for more detailed epidemiologic studies. One difficulty with such studies, especially for rare cancer types, is that unstable local area rate estimates, resulting from small population sizes, can obscure the underlying spatial pattern of disease risk. This paper presents a methodology for producing more stable rate estimates by statistically weighting the local area estimate toward the experience at the national level. The methodology is illustrated by the analysis of the spatial variation of two cancer types, bladder and lung, for U.S. white males over the three decades.

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