If you read the “Health” page (either paper or web-based) of any major news source (e.g., The New York Times, CNN),  reports of the occurrence of health outcomes are common headlines. For  example, you may see the following or similar headlines:

“Breast Cancer Increasing in Asian-American Women”
“Teenage Smoking at an All-Time Low”

Have you ever wondered where this information comes from and what it really means?

Governmental agencies and other organizations routinely  collect descriptive epidemiological statistics on many health outcomes.  For example, statistics on the occurrence of cancer in the United  States have been continuously collected since the early 1970s through  the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the  National Cancer Institute.

For this Case Study Assignment, you will analyze and  interpret descriptive epidemiologic statistics. To prepare for this  Assignment, review the material presented in the textbook.

A case study worksheet will be provided by your  instructor for this Assignment in the form of a Microsoft Word document.  Download the worksheet and type your answers directly into the document  to complete the Assignment. Be sure that your completed worksheet  contains your responses to all questions.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument. Descriptive Epidemiology: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION;

Descriptive Epidemiology: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results

Introduction

The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute is a source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. It’s goal is to provide detailed information on tumors, including age-adjusted death rates by state. The SEER Program has been collecting data since 1973. In 2003, NCI initiated a project called SEER*Stat–which stands for Statistical Analysis System for Epidemiologic Research–to improve access to SEER’s data through an online platform that allows users worldwide to examine SEER public use datasets (PUDs) using statistical software such as SAS and SPSS.

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute is a source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States.

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute is a source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. SEER collects and publishes cancer incidence data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 34% of the US population.

The program has evolved over time: initially it was primarily focused on colorectal cancers; later it added breast cancer following its inclusion as a separate entity in 1993; then it expanded to include prostate/prostate glandular tissue neoplasms (excluding prostatic adenocarcinoma) by 1997; then added melanoma by 2001; and finally added lung adenoacuteum and thyroid cancers in 2002.

SEER currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 34% of the US population.

SEER currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 34% of the US population. SEER is a source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. It was founded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1974 as part of NCI’s mission to provide leadership in scientific research related to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, control and prognosis of human cancers.

Since inception in 1973, the number of geographic areas covered by SEER has expanded from 7 areas to 18 areas which cover metropolitan regions representing a total of 19.4% of the US population.

Since inception in 1973, the number of geographic areas covered by SEER has expanded from 7 areas to 18 areas which cover metropolitan regions representing a total of 19.4% of the US population. Since 1998, NCI has been responsible for coordinating and collecting data on cancer incidence and survival in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam (US), Virgin Islands (US), Northern Marianas Islands (US), American Samoa(US) and Swains Island(Puerto Rico).

The goal of SEER is to provide national estimates of cancer rates by age group at every stage from birth through death so that health professionals can use this information to better understand patterns within their communities

As of December 2006, SEER added Las Vegas to its list of geographic areas.

Las Vegas is the largest city in Nevada and the fifth most populous city in the United States. Situated on the Las Vegas Strip, it’s known for its casinos, hotels and entertainment. As of December 2006, SEER added Las Vegas to its list of geographic areas for tracking cancer incidence rates by county and state.

The city has a warm desert climate with an average annual temperature ranging from 48°F (9°C) during winter months to 100°F (38°C) during summer months. The average annual rainfall is about 8 inches per year with no significant variation throughout the year but there are two distinct seasons when precipitation increases: April through June when monsoons bring heavy rains; October through December when hurricanes pass through bringing winds up to 90 mph along their path across town!

SEER*Stat allows the user to create public use datasets for use with statistical software such as SAS and SPSS.

SEER*Stat is a free software program that can be used with SAS and SPSS. It allows you to create public use datasets for use with statistical software such as SAS. This program also allows you to analyze data from the SEER database, which contains information on cancer incidence and survival rates for various types of cancer in the United States.

In addition to incidence, prevalence and survival data, SEER provides life tables for the entire United States.

In addition to incidence, prevalence and survival data, SEER provides life tables for the entire United States. Life tables are useful for comparing populations with different age structures and to forecast future mortality rates. Life expectancy can be calculated from these data if you know the age structure of the population (e.g., males 60 years or older in 2013).

The SEER program has also collaborated with other organizations in developing databases with special emphasis on specific cancers such as breast, prostate, colorectal, lung and colorectal cancer.

As a result of the availability of data from SEER, researchers have been able to develop new models that better predict risk factors for specific cancers. For example, one study found that smoking was not as strongly associated with breast cancer as previously thought. Another study using SEER data showed that women who had never smoked before age 18 had lower mortality rates than those who began smoking at any age after reaching their early twenties; this finding suggests that there may be certain types of women who are more susceptible to developing certain types of cancers if they start smoking later in life.

Detailed information about tumors may be found via the NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER).

The NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program is a source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. SEER collects and publishes data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 34% of the US population. These registries are located in each state, Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia.

The SEER database includes:

• Information on age-sex specific rates of new diagnoses of prostate cancer;

• Data on stage at diagnosis;

• Age adjusted death rate per 100,000 population by race/ethnicity groupings as well as among whites;

• Time to event data regarding mortality rates among patients with localized disease who were treated with radiation therapy alone (RTOG 8601);

Conclusion

The SEER program of the National Cancer Institute provides information on cancer incidence, prevalence and survival in the United States. The SEER Program collects data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 34% of the US population and publishes them in a public use dataset called “SEER*Stat”.