Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Cancer Mortality, Incidence, and Survival in the United States, 1950–2014: Over Six Decades of Changing Patterns and Widening Inequalities

Table 1

Age-adjusted all-cancer and site-specific cancer mortality rates per 100,000 population and relative risk (RR) of mortality among those aged ≥25 years by race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and poverty status: 1979–1998 National Longitudinal Mortality Study.

	Age-adjusted mortality			Age-adjusted mortality			Age-adjusted mortality
	Rate	SE	RR	Rate	SE	RR	Rate	SE	RR
	All cancers combined, male			All cancers combined, female			Lung cancer, male
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	355.67	2.53	1.00	230.37	1.75	1.00	116.79	1.42	1.00
Non-Hispanic Black	471.66	10.06	1.33	274.13	6.05	1.19	146.18	5.50	1.25
American Indian/Alaska Native	334.70	31.37	0.94	255.35	22.74	1.11	119.49	18.55	1.02
Asian/Pacific Islander	229.76	14.00	0.65	144.98	10.42	0.63	55.26	6.80	0.47
Mexican American	261.37	13.35	0.73	150.75	8.60	0.65	65.23	6.81	0.56
Other Hispanic	241.55	13.14	0.68	141.48	8.14	0.61	57.63	6.14	0.49
Educational attainment (years)	( for education < 0.01)			( for education < 0.01)			( for education < 0.01)
<12	418.15	4.14	1.57	251.18	3.05	1.23	153.05	2.53	2.36
12	351.49	4.44	1.32	228.32	2.59	1.12	111.67	2.38	1.72
13–15	334.57	6.92	1.26	218.20	4.30	1.07	95.40	3.53	1.47
16+	265.88	5.34	1.00	204.40	4.66	1.00	64.94	2.56	1.00
Poverty status^1	( for income < 0.01)			( for income < 0.01)			( for income < 0.01)
<100%	425.92	8.01	1.43	264.01	4.60	1.26	151.81	4.82	1.83
100–150%	418.24	7.99	1.40	245.02	5.06	1.17	146.93	4.83	1.77
150–200%	396.53	7.47	1.33	235.06	4.93	1.12	138.87	4.44	1.67
200–400%	360.04	3.99	1.21	225.60	2.74	1.08	115.51	2.20	1.39
400–600%	320.14	5.35	1.07	216.11	3.90	1.03	99.99	2.86	1.20
Above 600%	298.19	6.15	1.00	208.97	4.60	1.00	83.04	3.06	1.00
	Lung cancer, female			Colorectal cancer, male			Colorectal cancer, female
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	51.68	0.83	1.00	38.77	0.84	1.00	26.67	0.58	1.00
Non-Hispanic Black	56.81	2.76	1.10	41.66	2.99	1.07	34.35	2.14	1.29
American Indian/Alaska Native	44.15	9.48	0.85	29.18	9.64	0.75	31.98	8.13	1.20
Asian/Pacific Islander	26.67	4.55	0.52	29.85	5.05	0.77	13.07	3.26	0.49
Mexican American	19.45	3.15	0.38	24.11	4.00	0.62	16.22	2.88	0.61
Other Hispanic	19.19	3.00	0.37	21.32	3.91	0.55	13.23	2.50	0.50
Educational attainment (years)	( for education < 0.01)			( for education < 0.01)			( for education > 0.05)
<12	58.82	1.51	1.83	40.81	1.25	1.53	29.21	0.95	1.16
12	52.84	1.22	1.65	40.11	1.52	1.51	25.91	0.89	1.03
13–15	46.06	1.98	1.44	37.27	2.33	1.40	24.45	1.46	0.97
16+	32.08	1.87	1.00	26.65	1.70	1.00	25.12	1.67	1.00
Poverty status^1	( for income < 0.01)			( for income < 0.01)			( for income < 0.01)
<100%	58.97	2.24	1.28	39.54	2.41	1.24	29.59	1.44	1.29
100–150%	54.19	2.43	1.17	41.59	2.47	1.31	29.30	1.62	1.28
150–200%	49.28	2.26	1.07	41.12	2.39	1.29	28.20	1.63	1.23
200–400%	48.83	1.27	1.06	39.08	1.33	1.23	25.75	0.93	1.12
400–600%	48.70	1.80	1.05	37.16	1.88	1.17	26.05	1.39	1.13
Above 600%	46.18	2.13	1.00	31.77	2.05	1.00	22.96	1.56	1.00
	Prostate cancer			Breast cancer, female			Cervical cancer
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	44.43	0.93	1.00	41.72	0.76	1.00	3.91	0.24	1.00
Non-Hispanic Black	97.31	4.77	2.19	46.83	2.51	1.12	8.71	1.08	2.23
American Indian/Alaska Native	43.11	12.00	0.97	35.79	8.14	0.86	6.14	3.09	1.57
Asian/Pacific Islander	22.38	4.81	0.50	17.77	3.51	0.43	0.97	0.69	0.25
Mexican American	38.04	5.47	0.86	25.81	3.28	0.62	4.42	1.42	1.13
Other Hispanic	42.03	6.00	0.95	24.23	3.28	0.58	5.50	1.56	1.41
	Prostate cancer			Breast cancer, female			Cervical cancer
Educational attainment (years)	( for education > 0.05)			( for education < 0.01)			( for education < 0.05)
<12	49.50	1.29	1.03	39.76	1.30	0.89	6.76	0.58	2.49
12	43.49	1.74	0.91	41.58	1.11	0.93	3.87	0.34	1.42
13–15	48.18	2.92	1.00	42.24	1.86	0.94	2.76	0.46	1.01
>16	47.97	2.49	1.00	44.88	2.12	1.00	2.72	0.53	1.00
Poverty status^1	( for income > 0.05)			( for income < 0.01)			( for income < 0.01)
<100%	45.36	2.51	0.95	44.84	1.98	1.13	8.34	0.90	4.39
100–150%	49.93	2.52	1.04	41.39	2.22	1.04	6.29	0.88	3.31
150–200%	47.62	2.53	0.99	42.70	2.17	1.08	4.99	0.79	2.63
200–400%	49.60	1.58	1.03	41.78	1.19	1.05	3.88	0.36	2.04
400–600%	43.90	2.22	0.92	38.86	1.64	0.98	2.61	0.42	1.37
Above 600%	47.95	2.78	1.00	39.69	1.98	1.00	1.90	0.45	1.00
	Stomach cancer, male			Stomach cancer, female			Liver & IBD cancer, male
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	9.84	0.42	1.00	4.75	0.24	1.00	6.41	0.33	1.00
Non-Hispanic Black	20.15	2.09	2.05	8.62	1.07	1.81	8.87	1.37	1.38
American Indian/Alaska Native	11.58	5.23	1.18	5.08	2.93	1.07	3.92	2.77	0.61
Asian/Pacific Islander	23.83	4.56	2.42	14.83	3.23	3.12	22.19	4.10	3.46
Mexican American	12.98	2.78	1.32	9.90	2.25	2.08	12.21	2.77	1.90
Other Hispanic	15.18	3.45	1.54	5.87	1.72	1.24	8.88	2.44	1.39
Educational attainment (years)	( for education < 0.05)			( for education > 0.05)			( for education > 0.05)
<12	14.50	0.76	1.92	7.38	0.51	1.74	8.47	0.60	1.34
12	9.15	0.70	1.21	4.85	0.38	1.14	6.60	0.61	1.05
13–15	8.98	1.12	1.19	3.80	0.57	0.89	7.98	1.04	1.27
16+	7.56	0.92	1.00	4.25	0.68	1.00	6.30	0.76	1.00
Poverty status^1	( for income < 0.01)			( for income < 0.05)			( for income > 0.05)
<100%	14.00	1.44	1.65	6.47	0.69	1.20	10.47	1.27	1.43
100–150%	13.89	1.41	1.64	6.64	0.81	1.24	8.43	1.16	1.15
150–200%	11.94	1.30	1.41	6.03	0.79	1.12	7.46	1.05	1.02
200–400%	11.61	0.71	1.37	5.39	0.42	1.00	6.74	0.53	0.92
400–600%	7.69	0.82	0.91	4.18	0.57	0.78	6.29	0.72	0.86
Above 600%	8.46	1.03	1.00	5.37	0.75	1.00	7.34	0.90	1.00
	Liver & IBD cancer, female			Esophageal cancer, male			Esophageal cancer, female
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	2.93	0.19	1.00	8.65	0.39	1.00	2.24	0.17	1.00
Non-Hispanic Black	4.88	0.81	1.67	17.16	1.87	1.98	5.31	0.83	2.37
American Indian/Alaska Native	6.75	3.95	2.30	5.68	4.13	0.66	2.29	2.29	1.02
Asian/Pacific Islander	4.69	1.82	1.60	5.15	1.95	0.60	0.61	0.61	0.27
Mexican American	4.35	1.50	1.48	6.51	2.08	0.75	0.49	0.49	0.22
Other Hispanic	7.11	1.80	2.43	7.32	2.20	0.85	2.28	1.03	1.02
Educational attainment (years)	( for education < 0.01)			( for education < 0.01)			( for education > 0.05)
<12	4.20	0.40	1.84	10.22	0.67	1.89	3.02	0.34	1.24
12	3.13	0.30	1.37	10.13	0.71	1.88	2.25	0.26	0.93
13–15	3.08	0.52	1.35	8.01	0.98	1.48	2.76	0.49	1.14
16+	2.28	0.50	1.00	5.40	0.67	1.00	2.43	0.52	1.00
Poverty status^1	( for income < 0.01)			( for income < 0.01)			( for income > 0.05)
<100%	4.52	0.59	1.91	13.77	1.48	1.90	3.39	0.55	1.22
100–150%	5.25	0.74	2.22	9.59	1.27	1.32	2.67	0.50	0.96
150–200%	3.44	0.58	1.45	10.72	1.24	1.48	3.32	0.60	1.19
200–400%	2.77	0.31	1.17	8.85	0.61	1.22	2.12	0.26	0.76
400–600%	2.83	0.45	1.19	7.42	0.75	1.02	2.19	0.40	0.78
Above 600%	2.37	0.49	1.00	7.24	0.87	1.00	2.79	0.54	1.00

Mortality rates are age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. . Defined as a ratio of family income to poverty threshold.