Assessing Incidence Rates and Secular Trends in Nonmelanocytic Skin Cancer: Which Method is Best?

BACKGROUND: Evaluating the incidence of nonmelanocytic skin cancers in white populations and assessing the direction and strength of secular trends in these cancers have become important issues to dermatologists, oncologists, health policy analysts, and health care funders. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to evaluate the three principal methods used to assess incidence rates and secular trends. CONCLUSIONS: Each of the three methods has strengths and weaknesses. An understanding of these will enable proper assessment of the value and significance of findings presented in the literature.