Background: Persistent poverty census tracts have had ≥20% of the population living below the federal poverty line for 30+ years. We assessed the relationship between persistent poverty and cancer-related healthcare access across census tracts in Pennsylvania.
Methods: We gathered publicly available census tract-level data on persistent poverty, rurality, and sociodemographic variables, as well as potential access to healthcare (i.e., prevalence of health insurance, last-year check-up), realized access to healthcare (i.e., prevalence of screening for cervical, breast, and colorectal cancers), and self-reported cancer diagnosis. We used multivariable spatial regression models to assess the relationships between persistent poverty and each healthcare access indicator.
Results: Among Pennsylvania's census tracts, 2,789 (89.8%) were classified as non-persistent poverty, and 316 (10.2%) were classified as persistent poverty (113 did not have valid data on persistent poverty). Persistent poverty tracts had lower prevalence of health insurance [estimate = -1.70, standard error (SE) = 0.10], screening for cervical cancer (estimate = -4.00, SE = 0.17) and colorectal cancer (estimate = -3.13, SE = 0.20), and cancer diagnosis (estimate = -0.34, SE = 0.05), compared with non-persistent poverty tracts (all P < 0.001). However, persistent poverty tracts had higher prevalence of last-year check-up (estimate = 0.22, SE = 0.08) and screening for breast cancer (estimate = 0.56, SE = 0.15; both P < 0.01).
Conclusions: Relationships between persistent poverty and cancer-related healthcare access outcomes differed in direction and magnitude. Health promotion interventions should leverage data at fine-grained geographic units (e.g., census tracts) to motivate focus on communities or outcomes.
Impact: Future studies should extend these analyses to other states and outcomes to inform public health research and interventions to reduce geographic disparities.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-23-1255 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Under-five mortality and social determinants in africa: a systematic review.
Eur J Pediatr
January 2025
Global Health and Tropical Medicine, GHTM, LA-REAL, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, IHMT, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Purpose: Under-five mortality is a key public health indicator, highly responsive to preventive interventions. While global efforts have made strides in reducing mortality rates in this age group, significant disparities persist, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to systematically review the factors influencing under-five mortality in Africa, focusing on sociodemographic factors and health-related determinants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSociodemographic inequities in overall survival among younger and older women with cervical cancer.
Cancer Causes Control
January 2025
Division of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Purpose: Older Black women and women living in areas of low socioeconomic status (SES) diagnosed with cervical cancer (CC) have worse overall survival (OS). The objective was to investigate associations between OS and race/ethnicity and sociodemographic factors in younger (21-64 years) and older women (≥ 65 years) diagnosed with CC using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program data.
Methods: This retrospective, population-based cohort study included 39,000 women ≥ 21 years diagnosed with CC diagnosed between 2006 and 2020.
Impact of family childhood adversity on risk of violence and involvement with police in adolescence: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
J Epidemiol Community Health
January 2025
Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Background: Childhood adversities, such as exposure to parental mental illness, domestic violence and abuse, substance use, and family poverty, have been linked to involvement in violence in early adulthood. However, evidence on the cumulative impact of multiple adversities throughout childhood on violence and crime in adolescence remains scarce. This study investigates the associations between trajectories of family adversity and poverty during childhood, and the risk of involvement in violence and contact with police in adolescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImpossible motherhood: a health humanities reading of two monologues for women.
Med Humanit
January 2025
School of European Languages and Cultures, UCL, London, UK
Separated by a gap of 27 years, Anna Reynold's (1992) and Gary Owen's (2015) offer, on the surface, dramaturgically similar critiques of the impact of poverty on motherhood. Both plays are critically acclaimed monologues for women, which describe the death of a baby following inadequate interventions from health and/or social care services. This article examines the different theatrical contexts for these plays and offers a situated reading of the representation of maternal crisis in circumstances of social deprivation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatterns of Maternal Single and Polysubstance Use in the US: A Latent Class Analysis.
J Stud Alcohol Drugs
January 2025
Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States.
Objective: Substance use patterns vary considerably in the general population, yet little is known about patterns before and during pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to describe single substance and polysubstance use (PSU) before and during pregnancy among recent births in the United States (US) and compare exposure patterns.
Methods: We used data from the Pregnancy and Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) postpartum survey for 2016-2018 to estimate the prevalence and identify patterns of substance use by participants one to three months before and during pregnancy.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!