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 rec eived little attention. Methods. Age-specific incidence rates (1980-19 88) for invasive and in situ cervical cancer for Hispanic women were e stimated by matching individual surnames in the population-based Conne cticut Tumor Registry with the 1980 census list of Spanish surnames. M aiden names, obtained from death records of women previously receiving diagnoses of invasive cervical cancer, also were matched with the Spa nish-surname list. Results. Estimated age-specific invasive cervical c ancer 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 fo r 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 et hnicity. Conclusions. The findings indicated that the estimation of ca ncer rates for Hispanic women in Connecticut could be improved by obta ining maiden names of all women receiving cancer diagnoses.