Oral cancer mortality has declined since the early 1990s, but only among people with at least a high school education, a new study finds.
The study, led by Dr. Amy Chen at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, included mouth and throat cancer data from 1993 through 2007 in 26 states.
It was found that, among adults age 25 to 64, there were about 19,300 deaths during that period.
On average, deaths from cancer declined during the 1990s and 2000s by two to five percent every year, the researchers found.
By the end of the study, the cancers killed three out of every 100,000 white men, six out of every 100,000 black men, and one each of every 100,000 white and black women annually.
When those findings were filtered using education level, they found the decline was only present among black people with at least a high school education, and only among whites who'd completed some college.
Chen told Reuters Health that throat and mouth cancers are the latest type of cancer to show such a socioeconomic pattern is one more reason to prioritize education.
"Investment in education is very important not only for the health status of the population, but also for the economic status of the population," she added.
