Student to the Rescue: Creating Profiles for Breast Cancer in Missouri Women by State Senatorial District

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, other than skin cancer. Over 12% of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. Missouri cancer incidence and mortality rates are displayed in tables on the Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services website by geographic area (state, region and county), by tumor characteristic (e.g., stage at diagnosis, grade) and by demographic characteristics (age, race, etc.) and in similar visual displays on the Missouri Cancer Registry and Research Center (MCR-ARC) website. Given that breast cancer incidence and mortality vary by race and geographic region, MCR-ARC wanted to produce data that would be of interest to lawmakers as well as public health officials at the legislative district-level but no staff were available to create the fact sheets unless this task could be assigned to a graduate student.

Purpose: To produce breast cancer profile fact sheets for each senatorial district in Missouri.

Methods: With the assistance of MCR-ARC’s Senior Statistician, I analyzed Missouri’s population-based data on breast cancer among Missouri females and designed profiles containing indicators that would be of potential interest to lawmakers, their constituents and public health officials. These profiles were then published for each of Missouri’s 34 state senatorial districts.

Results: I created 34 Breast Cancer Profiles, each containing breast cancer indicators for each district and the state. I described the impact of breast cancer on the senator’s constituents.

Conclusions/Discussion: Fact sheets by senatorial district may impact a senator’s view of the importance of differences among constituents. In the future, I hope that fact sheets for each legislative district in Missouri can be created.