Socioeconomic and racial differences in lung cancer incidence

The association of lung cancer incidence with income and education and the effect of adjustment for socioeconomic distribution on black-white differences in lung cancer rates were evaluated using data from the Third National Cancer Survey. Included in this study were 20,868 cases of lung cancer (18,514 among whites and 2354 among blacks) diagnosed among metropolitan residents of the survey during 1969-1971. Median family income and median years of education by census tract of residence were used to indicate socioeconomic group. Strong significant inverse trends between lung cancer incidence and both income and education were apparent among white and black males, and the effect of income exceeded that of education. Lung cancer rates among black males compared with white males were significantly higher (p less than 0.001) before socioeconomic adjustment, nonsignificantly higher after adjustment for education, and nonsignificantly lower after adjustment for income. Strong trends in risk with income or education were not observed for lung cancer among females of either race.