Cancer mortality among Alaska natives, 1994-1998

Although overall cancer mortality rates in the U.S. declined throughout the 1990s, Alaska Native rates increased. This study compares mortality patterns of Alaska Natives for the period, 1994-1998, and U.S. Whites, and examines changes in rates since 1960-1969. We used death certificate data and Indian Health Service population estimates to create age-adjusted mortality rates for Alaska Natives. We compared these rates to NCHS mortality for U.S. Whites. In all, 597 Alaska Natives died of cancer over the five-year period, 1994-1998, their age-adjusted average annual mortality rate (224.5 per 100,000) was thirty percent higher than that of U.S. Whites (166.7 per 100,000), a statistically significant excess (OR = 1.3, 95% CI: 1.2-1.4). Alaska Natives were forty percent more likely to die of lung cancer than U.S. Whites (OR = 1.4, 95% CI: 1.2-1.6). This population also demonstrated elevated mortality rates for several other smoking-related cancers. Also, Alaska Natives are at excess risk for nearly all cancers of the digestive system. Alaska Natives experienced the same or lower mortality rates for genitourinary cancers excluding cancer of the kidney. Smoking related cancers, and particularly, lung cancer, were the major contributors to the excess mortality rates. These data suggest that the burden of cancer on the Alaska Native healthcare system will continue to increase as the population ages. Intensified efforts to modify behavioral risk factors are needed.