cer Surveillance Research raction of Area - Level Socioeconomic Status and UV B & P iation on Melanoma Occurrence in California

ownloade kground: Melanoma incidence has been correlated strongly and positively with both socioeconomic (SES) and lower latitude and other measures of ambient UV radiation (UVR). However, because ES populations may be colocated in areas of high UVR, we assessed their joint influences on melanoma ence to better target subpopulations for melanoma education and screening. thods: We obtained from the California Cancer Registry information regarding 23,564 incident cases asive cutaneous melanoma among non-Hispanic white residents between January 1, 1998, and ber 31, 2002. We geocoded each case based on residence at diagnosis and linked previously tested borhood measures of SES and average annual UVR to calculate age-adjusted incidence rates, rate , and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals. Poisson regression was used to calculate multiely adjusted rate ratios. ults: UVR was significantly and positively associated with melanoma incidence only among persons in the top 40% of California neighborhoods ranked by SES. People in neighborhoods of the highest d UVR categories had 60% higher rates of melanoma than those from neighborhoods in the lowest ries (rate ratio, 1.60; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-2.51). clusion: Our findings indicate that UVR and SES interact to influence melanoma occurrence and st that socioeconomic gradients in melanoma incidence are not explained entirely by UVR. act: Cancer prevention and early detection educational efforts should be targeted to high-SES s in areas of high UVR exposure. Contextual measures of both SES and UVR should be considered group important determinants of melanoma occurrence in future studies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(11); 2727–33. ©2010 AACR.