Regional Differences of Cancer Mortality in Hungary
István Kiss, János Sándor, and István Ember
Department of Public Health, Medical Faculty, University of Sciences Pécs, Hungary
Corresponding author: István Kiss
Department of Public Health, Medical Faculty
University of Sciences
Szigeti út 12.
H-7643 Pécs, Hungary
Telephone: +36 72 536 394
E-mail address: istvan.kiss@aok.pte.hu
CEJOEM 2002, Vol.8. No.23.:235244
Key words:
Cancer, carcinogenesis, environmental factors
Abstract:
In the developed countries, during the last centuries chronic noninfectious diseases replaced
the infectious diseases as the most important causes of deaths. This schift in the picture of
morbidity presented a new challenge for public health: studying the causes of these new diseases
and focussing on their prevention, beyond the traditional tasks of epidemiology. Effective control
of noncommunicable diseases, however, requires quite different strategy from public health.
Environmental factors play a very important role in the casualty of cardiovascular diseases and
cancer, often in an interaction with other external or genetic factors. Consequently, studying
geographical inequalities in mortality may help in defining the environmental factors
participating in human carcinogenesis, and in planning the allocation of prevention resources. In
the present study, cancer mortalities for the leading cancer types in Hungary were compared on
county and regional levels. The data obtained reveal that certain regions show very homogeneous
distribution of mortality patterns but others exhibit strong intraregional differences. The
results suggest the necessity of analysis of cancer mortality data on particular regional levels.
Received: 3 July 2002
Accepted: 12 September 2002
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