About the Historical Trends Graph
Purpose
Use this graph to explore the relationship over time of levels and trends in rates for geographic areas and for demographic subgroups. Potential health disparities can be explored to identify opportunities or to evaluate the success of prior interventions.
While useful for planning and evaluating cancer control, these trends represent an ecological analysis. An cancer epidemiologist knowledgeable about the area and its demographics and health resource utilization should assist in interpreting unexpected trends.
Statistics require careful interpretation. See the information page about interpret rankings for insight into interpreting statistics particularly if you are a new user of statistics.
Data Sources
- Mortality data are provided by the National Vital Statistics System
at the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. - Population counts for denominators are based on Census populations as modified by NCI.
- Trends are determined by using Joinpoint analysis.
- Rates are calculated using SEER*Stat.
- Trends are determined by using Joinpoint analysis of available historical data and reporting the last segment as the most recent trend.
