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Cancer in Rural Versus Urban Populations: A Review
Author(s) -
Monroe Adele C.,
Ricketts Thomas C.,
Savitz Lucy A.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
the journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.439
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1748-0361
pISSN - 0890-765X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-0361.1992.tb00354.x
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , cancer , medicine , survivorship curve , incidence (geometry) , rural area , cancer incidence , health care , demography , disease , health equity , environmental health , gerontology , public health , economic growth , nursing , pathology , physics , sociology , optics , economics
Rural‐urban comparisons have identified higher age‐, race‐, and sex‐adjusted cancer incidence and mortality rates in urban populations for most anatomic sites, suggesting that rural populations are at lower risk from cancer. Conversely, findings that rural cancer patients are diagnosed at later stages of disease, that higher proportions of rural cancer cases are unstaged at diagnosis, and that rural cancer patients are at a more advanced stage of illness when referred to home health care agencies, suggest that rural cancer patients are disadvantaged when compared to their urban counterparts. This paper summarizes rural‐urban patterns of cancer mortality, incidence, and survivorship since 1950; outlines rural‐urban differences in utilization of health care services; questions the appropriateness of using rural‐urban comparisons of cancer mortality and incidence to evaluate access to cancer care; and suggests potential approaches to the question of whether rural residents have access to cancer care comparable to that available to urban residents.