[Evolution of mortality due to lung cancer in Andalusia between 1975 and 1977]

To describe mortality due to lung cancer in those over 24 by sex, age, birth cohort and year of death in Andalusia between 1975 and 1997.

A descriptive population-based study.

Andalusia between 1975 and 1997.

All those residing in Andalusia during the study period.

The following indicators were calculated: gross rates, rates adjusted by age of death and rates of potential years of life lost. The European population was used as reference, with specific rates for age-groups and year of birth. Poisson models were used to quantify trends and annual percentages of change both for the entire period and for the 23 years studied. Death from lung cancer in men during these years increased markedly. Age-adjusted rates went up from 77.37 deaths per 100,000 persons per year in 1975 to 121.92 in 1997. However, in women, there was a small drop from 10.19 to 8.22 deaths per 100,000 persons per year over the same period. Men suffered 7.59 times more mortality than women in 1975, reaching 17.25 times more in 1994. Age had a clear relationship to lung cancer mortality: the older the population, the greater the death-rate. In men there was an ascendant cohort effect until the generation born between 1950 and 1959, from which time the effect is unclear. Women had a descending cohort effect, with high variability between one generation and another.

Death from lung cancer in Andalusia between 1975 and 1997 increased in men in transversal terms, whereas in women it went down. However, the analyses of birth cohorts show signs of changes in the most recent generations, although age, in both men and women, is the variable most closely related to mortality.