Colorectal Cancer Mortality and Place: Using GIS to Explore Disparities in Shelby County, Tennessee

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men and women in the United States. Although CRC mortality rates are on the decline nationally, Southern states still struggle with CRC related mortality. In addition to regional disparities, other demographic factors such as age, race, gender, and socioeconomic status have been found to have a strong relationship with CRC's stage at presentation, higher incidence and mortality rates. Epidemiological data from Tennessee resembles the national trends in mortality disparities resulting from CRC. For the five year period, 1999-2003, the mortality rates for CRC in Tennessee were 32.8 per 100,000 for African Americans and 19.3 for Whites. Using CRC mortality data from the Memphis Shelby County Health Department, we examined patterns evidenced by GIS mapping that pointed to potential disparate conditions between zip codes with highest CRC mortality rates and those with lowest mortality rates. For 2005-2009, the mortality rates for CRC in Shelby County were 54.4 for African Americans and 44.4 for Whites. GIS maps in this poster will demonstrate that zip codes with the highest CRC mortality rates had higher African American populations, higher levels of poverty, and lower levels of education when compared to zip codes with lower CRC mortality rates. These results are consistent with findings on the disparities found in CRC mortality rates in the literature.Data presented in these maps point to a need for further focused research aimed at understanding how structural social determinants contribute to disparate health outcomes for CRC.