WEDNESDAY, Sept. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Higher levels of education are strongly associated with decreased mortality from cancers of the lung, breast, prostate and colon/rectum in black men, white men and white women, according to study findings published in the Sept. 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Elizabeth Ward, Ph.D., of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed 2001 U.S. Census data for 119,376,196 individuals aged 25 to 64 to examine the relationships between education and race, and mortality from lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer.
Educational level was strongly associated with a reduced risk of mortality from all cancers combined in black and white men and white women. The difference in risk was most pronounced when comparing those with 12 years or less of education and those with greater than 12 years. The mortality rate from prostate cancer in black men with 12 or less years of education was more than double that of black men with further schooling.
"We have found that cancer death rates vary substantially by race, level of education, and sex in a recent time period in the United States. Our findings provide a baseline against which efforts to reduce cancer disparities can be measured," the authors conclude.
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