Birth cohort analysis using irregular crosssectional data: A technical note

Abstract

Cancer motality and morbidity data are usually collected and published by calendar time period and by age class. Transformation of the age‐specific incidence or mortality rates into those for birth cohorts is readily undertaken when one age class of each time period corresponds to a given cohort: a requirement that is often not satisfied. The authors propose a method for the computation of birth cohort age‐specific incidence rates given irregular cross‐sectional data. The procedure is based on a cross‐sectional interpolation of cumulated population and case figures, from which cohort rates can be derived. Using the method several examples of trends in cancer incidence by birth cohort are discussed.