Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-26-2023

Comments

This article is the author’s final published version in Preventive Medicine Reports, Volume 33, April 2023, Article number 102218.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102218. Copyright © McIntire et al.

Abstract

Community-based breast cancer prevention efforts often focus on women who live in the same neighborhoods, as they tend to have similar demographic characteristics, health behaviors, and environmental exposures; yet little research describes methods of selecting neighborhoods of focus for community-based cancer prevention interventions. Studies frequently use demographics from census data, or single breast cancer outcomes (e.g., mortality, morbidity) in order to choose neighborhoods of focus for breast cancer interventions, which may not be optimal. This study presents a novel method for measuring the burden of breast cancer among neighborhoods that could be used for selecting neighborhoods of focus. In this study, we 1) calculate a metric composed of multiple breast cancer outcomes to describe the burden of breast cancer in census tracts Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2) map the neighborhoods with the greatest breast cancer burden; and 3) compare census tracts with the highest burden of breast cancer to those with demographics sometimes used for geo-based prioritization, i.e., race and income. The results of our study showed that race or income may not be appropriate proxies for neighborhood breast cancer burden; comparing the breast cancer burden with demographics at the census tract level, we found few overlaps with the highest percentage African American or the lowest median incomes. Agencies implementing community-based breast cancer interventions should consider this method to inform the selection of neighborhoods for breast cancer prevention interventions, including education, screening, and treatment.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Language

English

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