Estimating cervical cancer incidence in the Hispanic population of Connecticut by use of surnames.

BACKGROUND: The problem of estimating cancer incidence in the growing population of Hispanic women in the Northeastern United States has received little attention. METHODS: Age-specific incidence rates (1980-1988) for invasive and in situ cervical cancer for Hispanic women were estimated by matching individual surnames in the population-based Connecticut Tumor Registry with the 1980 census list of Spanish surnames. Maiden names, obtained from death records of women previously receiving diagnoses of invasive cervical cancer, also were matched with the Spanish-surname list. RESULTS: Estimated age-specific invasive cervical cancer rates for Hispanic women, based on matching individual surnames in the registry with the Spanish-surname list, were higher than rates for all white women in all age groups and at least as high as those for all black women in most age groups. Comparison of maiden names with individual surnames for deceased women, however, suggested that use of individual surnames resulted in some misclassification of Hispanic ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicated that the estimation of cancer rates for Hispanic women in Connecticut could be improved by obtaining maiden names of all women receiving cancer diagnoses.