Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1422475

Association of US county-level social vulnerability index (SVI) with breast, colorectal, and lung cancer screening, incidence, and mortality rates across US Counties

Provisionally accepted
Akhil Mehta Akhil Mehta 1*Won Jin Jeon Won Jin Jeon 2Gayathri Nagaraj Gayathri Nagaraj 3*
  • 1 Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, United States
  • 2 Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, United States
  • 3 Loma Linda University Cancer Center, Loma Linda, California, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Despite being the second leading cause of death in the United States, cancer disproportionately affects underserved communities due to multiple social factors like economic instability and limited healthcare access, leading to worse survival outcomes. This cross-sectional database study involves real-world data to explore the relationship between the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), a measure of community resilience to disasters, and disparities in screening, incidence, and mortality rates of breast, colorectal, and lung cancer. The SVI encompasses four themes: socioeconomic status, household composition & disability, minority status & language, and housing type & transportation. Materials and Methods: Using county-level data, this study compared cancer metrics in U.S. counties and the impact of high and low SVI. Two-sided statistical analysis was performed to compare SVI tertiles and cancer screening, incidence, and mortality rates. The outcomes were analyzed with logistic regression to determine the odds ratio of SVI counties having cancer metrics at or above the median. Results: Our study encompassed 3,132 United States counties. From publicly available SVI data, we demonstrated that high SVI scores correlate with low breast and colorectal cancer screening rates, along with high incidence and mortality rates for all three types of cancers. County level SVI has impact on incidence rates of cancers; breast cancer rates were lowest in high SVI counties, while colorectal and lung cancer rates were highest in the same counties. Age-adjusted mortality rates for all three cancers increased across SVI tertiles. After risk adjustment, a 10-point SVI increase correlated with lower screening and higher mortality rates.In conclusion, our study establishes a significant correlation between SVI and cancer metrics, highlighting the potential to identify marginalized communities with health disparities for targeted healthcare initiatives. It underscores the need for further longitudinal studies on bridging the gap in overall cancer care in the United States.

    Keywords: Social vulnerability index, social determinants of health, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, cancer screening

    Received: 24 Apr 2024; Accepted: 19 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mehta, Jeon and Nagaraj. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Akhil Mehta, Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, United States
    Gayathri Nagaraj, Loma Linda University Cancer Center, Loma Linda, 92354, California, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.