Study objective: The aim was to investigate whether trends in mortality from cancer of the cervix uteri by age, marital status, and social class are compatible with current beliefs about the epidemiology of the disease.
Design: Data on mortality from cancer of the cervix for single and married women by age and social class were obtained from the Registrar General's Decennial Supplements on occupational mortality for the years 1950-53, 1959-63, 1970-72, and 1979, 1980, 1982, and 1983. Age standardised mortality rates were calculated directly by social class and marital status.
Setting: The data relate to all cases of carcinoma of the cervix reported in England and Wales in the years studied.
Main results: There was a marked convergence of mortality between single and married women over the period within every social class grouping examined. The social class differential, however, remained essentially unchanged for both single and married women considered separately.
Conclusions: Trends in mortality by marital status appear to reflect accurately the changes in the pattern of marriage and sexual behaviour that have taken place in the post-war period, whereas the patterns of other risk and protective factors such as screening explain these trends less well. In contrast, it seems likely that factors other than patterns of sexual behaviour and screening operate to maintain the social class differential in England and Wales.