California Cancer Reporting System Standards Volume I: Abstracting and Coding Procedures
The address at diagnosis field is part of the patient’s demographic data and has multiple uses. It indicates referral patterns and allows for the analysis of cancer cluster concerns and other epidemiological studies. The main purpose of the address field is to identify the patient's residence at the time the cancer was first diagnosed, not the patient's current address.
Every effort should be made to determine the correct address.
Rules for determining residency are based on those used by the U.S. Department of Commerce for the 1990 Census of Population.
It is important to follow the rules exactly, because the central registry uses automated data processing methods that reject non-standard entries. The data are used for grouping cases by geographic area.
Enter the address of the patient's usual residence on the date of the initial diagnosis. See Date of Diagnosis for definition of date of diagnosis.
Usual residence is where the patient lives and sleeps most of the time and is not necessarily the same as the legal or voting residence.
Do not record a temporary address, such as a friends or relatives.
If both a street address and a P.O. Box are given, use the street address.
For military personnel and their families living on base, the address is that of the base. For personnel living off base, use the residence address. For details about military personnel assigned to ships and about crews of merchant vessels, see Appendix E.
Address is that of the institution for all of the following:
Incarcerated individuals.
Nursing home, convalescent or rest home patients.
Physically handicapped, mentally challenged or mentally ill residents of homes, schools, hospitals or wards.
Long term residents of other hospitals such as Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals.
Use the current address of a college student. But for children in boarding schools below the college level enter the parents' address.
If the case is nonanalytic (see Class of Case for criteria), use the address at admission unless there is a documented reason to suspect that the patient resided elsewhere at the time of diagnosis. If there is such an indication, record what is known of the address at diagnosis.
If the patient is homeless or transient with no usual residence:
Enter the street, city and zip code as unknown but code county of residence to the county where the reporting facility is located and code the state to California.
Document that the patient is “Homeless” or “Transient” in the Remarks field.
NOTE: Coding address information for homeless/transient patients in this manner is important from a research perspective. Attempting to code otherwise would be incorrect in California and would skew cluster investigations.
Persons with more than one residence (snowbirds) are considered residents of the place they designate as their residence at the time of diagnosis if their usual residence cannot be determined.