Climate, socioeconomic status and Hodgkin's disease mortality in the United States

This study examines the relative effects of climate and socioeconomic status (SES) on standard mortality ratios (SMR) from both young adult and older adult Hodgkin's disease (HD) in the United States. Climate variables explain a greater percentage of the variation in the SMR for HD than do SES variables. After adjusting for SES, indicators of climate exhibit a strong correlation with the young adult SMR, but not with the older adult SMR. These findings suggest that environmental factors play an important role in the etiology of young adult HD and support the hypothesis that young adult HD is a different disease from the older adult form.