The impact of minority health social vulnerability on population-based cancer incidence.

Abstract

e22501 Background: Area-level social determinants of health impact cancer outcomes. However, less is known about how the Minority Health Social Vulnerability Index (MHSVI) affects cancer incidents at the county level. Methods: County-level data from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality from 2019 for 3,232 counties were analyzed. MHSVI themes: socioeconomic, household composition, minority status/language, housing/transportation, healthcare infrastructure/access, and medical vulnerability were the exposures (continuous). Overall MHSVI were categorized into low (.01/.25), moderate (.26/.74), and high (.75/1) percentiles. The outcome was the total number of cancer incidents (continuous). Covariates include rural-urban regions. Using STATA/MPv.17, unadjusted and adjusted negative binomial regressions with population weighting were performed. P-values of ≤0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: There were 201,547 total cancer incidents. Adjusted analyses reveal that cancer increased as vulnerability increased especially for household composition (IRR. 1.19, 95% CI: 1.15 – 1.23), healthcare infrastructure/access (IRR. 0.89, 95% CI: 0.87 – 0.91), and housing/transportation (IRR. 0.88, 95% CI: 0.85 – 0.90) themes. Cancer increased in moderate MHSVI areas (IRR. 0.94, 95% CI: 0.92 – 0.96) and high (IRR. 0.86, 95% CI: 0.84 – 0.88) areas compared to low. Conclusions: This study discovered social disparities in cancer incidence. Quantifying the influence of MHSVI on cancer incidents could provide insight into the design/focus of future initiatives aimed at reducing cancer disparities. [Table: see text]