Mortality at ages 75 and older in the Cancer Prevention Study (CPS I)

In the fall of 1959 the American Cancer Society began a comprehensive epidemiologic investigation of more than one million men and women drawn mainly from the middle-class population. The study reported here presents a portion of the investigation relating to the mortality among 49,469 subjects who attained age 75 years and older during the course of the study. Both men and women who at entry into this study (1960) were judged to be in good health registered distinctly lower mortality than those judged to be in poor health. Men and women with some college education had significantly lower death rates than those with lesser schooling. Men and women who reported a good family history of longevity showed consistently lower death rates in each five-year age group than those with average or poor family history of longevity. Persons with an average family history of longevity generally had lower death rates than those with a poor family history of longevity. Analysis of mortality by cause indicated that at ages 75 and older nearly half the deaths were attributed to all forms of heart disease. Coronary heart disease accounted for about 35 percent of all deaths, with the proportion decreasing with age. Deaths from stroke rose from 15 to about 20 percent with increase in age. Deaths from all sites of cancer declined with advancing age in both sexes, from about 16 percent of all deaths at ages 75 to 79 to about six percent at ages 90 to 99. Among men, cancer of the prostate accounted for 3.5 percent of deaths at ages 75 to 84, decreasing to about one half this proportion in the early-90s age group. Colorectal cancer decreased from about three percent of total deaths at ages 75 to 84 to about 1.5 percent in the early 90s. Lung cancer and stomach cancer remained at the same level at these ages.