ABSTRACT
All patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma in Western Australia have been registered since 1960; 337 men and 280 women were registered in the period 1960-84. During this period there was a 25% increase in incidence. Age adjusted incidence rates rose from 2.34 per 100,000 person years in men and 1.64 in women during the decade 1960-69 to 2.95 in men and 1.92 in women in 1980-84. Overall, the incidence was 1.36 times higher in men than in women (95% confidence interval 1.16-1.59). Survival from multiple myeloma improved substantially during the period. In 1960-69, median survival for both sexes was six months, in 1970-79 it was 19 months, and in 1980-84 median survival in men was 43 months while in women it was at least five years.
Subject(s)
Multiple Myeloma/epidemiology , Agricultural Workers' Diseases/diagnosis , Agricultural Workers' Diseases/epidemiology , Agricultural Workers' Diseases/mortality , Australia , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Multiple Myeloma/diagnosis , Multiple Myeloma/mortality , Occupational Medicine , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care , Socioeconomic Factors , WoodABSTRACT
Interpersonal linkages were studied in 178 Hodgkin's disease patients, aged 60 years or younger, who lived in Western Australia between 1964 and 1975, and in their matched controls. Eighty-nine living subjects were interviewed about places and periods of residence, school attendance and employment, and possible linkages were computed based on concurrence of these events. Subjects were also shown the names of all patients and controls and asked to mark the names they recognized, giving details of acquaintanceships. The acquaintanceship method yielded more and the concurrence method fewer case-case links than expected. Little overlap occurred in linkages identified by the two methods. The acquaintanceship method is thought to be the more reliable. Risk factors suggested in the literature were also investigated. Increased risk of Hodgkin's disease in living patients was associated with being unmarried, being born outside Western Australia, smoking cigarettes, and having lived and worked on a farm and worked with animals. These effects did not explain the excess of case-case linkages found by the acquaintanceship method.
Subject(s)
Hodgkin Disease/etiology , Interpersonal Relations , Adolescent , Adult , Australia , Child , Child, Preschool , Demography , Employment , Female , Hodgkin Disease/epidemiology , Housing , Humans , Infant , Interviews as Topic , Male , Middle Aged , Risk , SchoolsABSTRACT
Diagnoses of 1443 patients from a population-based leukemia and allied disorders registry in Western Australia were subjected to diagnostic review, resulting in 235 deletions, 120 changes in diagnosis, and 23 undecided diagnoses. Deletions occurred mainly in lymphoma registrations, most of these being reclassified as other cancers. Among the patients whose names were deleted, 196 deaths occurred of whom 67 had leukemia or an allied disorder as the certified cause of death. Lymphoma incidence rates in Western Australia were lower than those reported from another Australian registry. Quality control of registration and special interests in diagnosis or classification of particular tumors may affect their reported incidence rates.
