Colon Cancer Death Rates Falling Faster in Northeast than in South - Article Health

Stepped-up colon-cancer screening has helped slash death rates from the disease across the U.S. in recent years, but not all regions of the country have benefited equally. According to a new study from the American Cancer Society, the drop in death rates has been considerably faster in the Northeast than in the South.

In the early 1990s, the states with the highest rates of colon-cancer deaths were clustered in the Rust Belt, Mid-Atlantic region, and New England. Within a decade, the study shows, the highest rates could instead be found in the Deep South and Appalachia, thanks to sharp declines in the Northeast.

Death rates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Maine, and Connecticut all fell by 33% or more during that 10-year span, whereas the decline was 15% or less in six southern states, including West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama, according to the study.

In Mississippi, the decrease in the death rate wasn't even statistically significant, making it one of only two states (along with Wyoming) to see no measurable improvement.

"The main factor is really [that] screening rates are lower in the South compared to the Northeast," says Ahmedin Jemal, PhD, the lead author of the study and the vice president of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, in Atlanta.

Southern states are generally poorer than northern states, and they tend to have more residents without health insurance who may forgo the regular screening that experts recommend for people over age 50, Jemal explains. And as the study notes, Southerners are also more likely to be obese and to smoke—both known risk factors for colon cancer (also known as colorectal cancer).

The new study, which appears in the July issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, follows on the heels of a report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that highlighted nationwide gains in the fight against colon cancer.

Between 2003 and 2007, the percentage of U.S. adults ages 50 to 75 who had ever had a colonoscopy or other screening test increased from 52% to 65%, according to the report. The benefits of the wider screening could be seen in the national death rate from the cancer, which declined from 19 to 16.7 per 100,000 inhabitants over the same period.

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