Lung-Cancer Mortality as Related to Residence and Smoking Histories. I. White Males

Abstract

For a 10 percent sample of all white male lung-cancer deaths in the United States during 1958, residence and smoking histories were collected from family informants and additional diagnostic details from certifying physicians. Residence and smoking histories were also obtained for a sample of the general population from the U.S. Bureau of the Census Current Population Survey. A major objective was to study gradients in lung-cancer mortality among groups classified with respect to lifetime residence history, controlling for smoking history. The interaction of residence and smoking histories on the schedule of lung-cancer death rates was also examined. For these purposes summary measures of lifetime residence histories were developed. The major findings were: (a) the appearance of a strong smoking-class gradient in lung-cancer mortality among all population subgroups considered; (6) trivial absolute differences in death rates by residence history among nonsmokers; (c) joint effects of residence and smoking histories in the schedule of lung-cancer rates far greater than those expected on the assumption of additivity of the separate effects; (d) lower risks among lifetime residents in communities of all sizes as opposed to those displayed by more mobile populations; (e) high lung-cancer risks for two specific migrant groups: U.S. farm-born and foreign-born residents of large metropolitan centers; the latter effects were not evident in the control data for cancer of the colon and rectum. The consistency of the present data with other evidence and their relation to some features of current hypotheses of lung-cancer etiology are discussed.