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A comparison of analyses of occupational bladder cancer: Death certificate vs. population‐based case‐control interview data
Author(s) -
Burnett Carol A.,
Silverman Debra T.,
Lalich Nina R.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.4700250507
Subject(s) - death certificate , medicine , population , certificate , bladder cancer , cause of death , demography , gerontology , cancer , environmental health , pathology , disease , algorithm , sociology , computer science
The authors examined the utility of death certificate data for occupational health surveillance by comparing the ability of the data to identify high‐risk occupations for bladder cancer with that of a population‐based case‐control study. Death certificate data for white males from 23 states for 1979–1987 were analyzed using proportionate mortality ratios. The case‐control study used cancer registry cases for 1977–1978. Results were compared for 21 a priori suspect occupations. A broad definition of agreement resulted in agreement for 62% of the occupations; the death certificate study identified eight of 15 occupations identified by the case‐control study and neither study identified five of the categories. While death certificate data have many limitations, our results indicate that death certificate data can provide clues to some potential occupational health problems. With the advantages of inexpensive data, large sample size, and industrial coverage, more refined analyses of the data should prove useful for occupational mortality surveillance and hypothesis generation. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.