Skin biopsy rates and incidence of melanoma: population based ecological study

摘要

Objectives To describe changes in skin biopsy rates and to determine their relation to changes in theincidence of melanoma.Design Population based ecological study.Setting Nine geographical areas of the United States.Participants Participants of the SurveillanceEpidemiology and End Results (SEER) programmeaged 65 and older.Main outcome measures For the period 1986 to2001, annual skin biopsy rates for each surveillancearea from Medicare claims and incidence rates formelanoma for the same population.