Although rural residents are characterized by relatively low mortality rates, they experience higher rates of chronic disease, including cancer. There is evidence that cancer mortality among rural populations may be increasing more rapidly than increases among urban populations. Rural cancer patients are reportedly diagnosed at later stages of disease, have higher proportions of unstaged cancers at diagnosis, and are at more advanced stages of illness when referred to home health care agencies.
Agricultural Health Study
This long-term study, launched in 1993, is examining agricultural exposures and chronic disease, especially cancer, among commercial and private pesticide applicators and their spouses in North Carolina and Iowa.
- Nearly 90,000 subjects were enrolled in the first 5 years of the study.
- A supplemental effort was made to recruit African-American farmers in North Carolina, due to the small number of African Americans eligible to enter into the study through the normal enrollment process. Approximately 3,200 African Americans were enrolled through the normal and supplemental efforts.
- The study is designed to identify occupational, lifestyle, and genetic factors that may affect the rate of diseases in farming populations.
- The study is sponsored by NCI, NIEHS, and EPA.
- Agricultural Health Study Web site.
