Trends in breast cancer mortality rates by region of the United States, 1950?1999

Abstract

Limited information is available on trends in breast cancer mortality by region of the country. Rates for broad age groups were calculated from 1950 to 1999 for whites and 1970-1999 for blacks for four census regions and 508 state economic areas of the United States. For white women ages 50-64 years, the mortality relative risk [RR] for the Northeast compared to the South was 1.48 in 1950-1959 and 1.15 in 1990-1999. Rates increased in all regions from the 1950s to 1960s but more substantially in the South, increased slightly in the 1970s in all regions, declined slightly in the Northeast, Midwest and West but not in the South in the 1980s, and declined more in the Northeast, Midwest and West than in the South in the 1990s. Among similarly aged black women, the RRs for the Northeast compared to the South were 1.13 and 1.0 in 1970-1979 and 1990-1999, respectively. Among these women, rates increased in all regions in the 1980s; in the 1990s rates declined in the Northeast, Midwest and West but continued to increase in the South. The historically lower breast cancer mortality rates in the South have been eroded because of relatively less favorable trends in the South.