|
Further, there is
a significant relationship between women at ages 30-74 and the
geographic latitude. This is consistent with the considerable geographic
variation in breast cancer mortality 24. For women aged 65
years and older, breast cancer mortality is 26% higher in New England
than in the south, while incidence is only 3% higher 25.
Mortality rates from breast cancer are approximately 25% higher for
women in the northeastern United States than for women in the South or West
25. This can be depicted by the correlation with the geographic
longitude, see Table VI. Investigators reported that "Jet Lag" is caused
from air travel through changing time zones, and hence leading to
disturbance of melatonin rhythms 26. The main but not only cause
of jet lag is crossing time zones. Usually going east is worse than going
west 27,28. Finally, the obtained negative relationship between
mortality data and elevation is clear in the sense that reduced temperature
occur higher elevation where there is less water vapor to trap and hold
heat. The resulted regression model must be analyzed carefully. We believe
that all the environmental factors are related together in such way that
they represent an optimal integrated model. That is, we can not treat their
influence on the mortality rate separately.Spatial variation in the
distribution of breast cancer rates has been well documented, both
internationally and within the United States 5,29. We proposed a
medical-based Geographic Information System (mGIS) application for
monitoring and reducing the risk factors associated with the spatial
environmental factors, see Fig 4. |