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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Chiehwen Ed Hsu, PhD, MPH, Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, 2387 HHP Building, Valley Drive, College Park, MD 20742, 301-405-8161, edhsu@umd.edu, Jerry A. Miller, MS, PhD, National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, MS E-86, Atlanta, GA 30333, Francisco Soto Mas, MD, PhD, MPH, Health & Literacy Program, University of Texas at El Paso, College of Education, El Paso, TX 79968-0574, and Ella T. Nkhoma, MPH, Dept. of Epidemiology, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2106 McGavran-Greenberg Hall, CB #7435, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.

Prostate cancer mortality disparities exist among racial/ethnic groups in the U.S., yet few studies have explored the spatiotemporal trend of the disease burden. The present study analyzed the geographic variations of cancer mortality by three Texas racial/ethnic groups over a 22-year period to better understand mortality disparities. The Spatial Scan Statistic developed by Kulldorff et al. was used. It detected excess mortality of a scan window of 50% and 90% of the study period respectively and a spatial cluster size of 50% of the population at risk. Time trend was analyzed to examine the potential temporal behavior of clusters. Spatial queries were used to identify the regions with multiple racial/ethnic groups having excess mortality. The most likely area of excess mortality for Blacks/African Americans occurred in Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and upper east Texas between 1990 and 1999; and for Hispanics/Latinos in central Texas between 1992 and 1996; and for non-Hispanic Whites, in the upper south and west to central Texas areas between 1990 and 1996. Excess mortality persisted among all racial/ethnic groups in certain identified counties. The second scan revealed that three counties in West Texas presented an excess mortality for Hispanics from 1980 to 2001. Many counties bore excess mortality burden for multiple groups. There is no decline in time trend in prostate cancer mortality for Texas Blacks and Non-Hispanic Whites. Disparities in prostate cancer mortality among racial/ethnic groups existed in Texas. Central Texas counties with excess mortality on multiple subgroups warrant further investigation.

Learning Objectives:

• Familiarize with core components of health informatics and how they are related to health disparities surveillance.
• Illustrate an alternative method such as spatial analysis compared to traditional methods of presenting health surveillance data in detecting health disparities.
• Recognize the benefits and drawbacks of applying the Spatial Scan method in analyzing health data.

Keywords: Risk Communication, Geographic Information Systems

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered