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Association between the social vulnerability index and breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates in Rhode Island

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Abstract

Background

Cancer screening is effective in reducing the burden of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers, but not all communities have appropriate access to these services. In this study, we aimed to identify under-resourced communities by assessing the association between the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) with screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers in ZIP-code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in Rhode Island.

Methods

This study leveraged deidentified health insurance claims data from HealthFacts RI, the state’s all-payer claims database, to calculate screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers using Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures. We used spatial autoregressive Tobit models to assess the association between the SVI, its four domains, and its 15 component variables with screening rates in 2019, accounting for spatial dependencies.

Results

In 2019, 73.2, 65.0, and 66.1% of eligible individuals were screened for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer, respectively. For every 1-unit increase in the SVI, screening rates for breast and colorectal cancer were lower by 0.07% (95% CI 0.01–0.08%) and 0.08% (95% CI 0.02–0.15%), respectively. With higher scores on the SVI’s socioeconomic domain, screening rates for all three types of cancers were lower.

Conclusion

The SVI, especially its socioeconomic domain, is a useful tool for identifying areas that are under-served by current efforts to expand access to screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer. These areas should be prioritized for new place-based partnerships that address barriers to screening at the individual and community level.

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Data availability

The US Census and American Community Survey are both publicly available at www.census.gov. The Rhode Island All Payers Claims Database used in this study is managed by the Rhode Island Department of Health and can be requested at www.health.ri.gov/data/healthfactsri/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Brown University, 121 S Main St, Box G-S121-2, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Jihwan Hwang, Patricia Markham Risica & William Goedel

  2. Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, RI, USA

    Eric Lamy

Authors
  1. Jihwan Hwang
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  2. Patricia Markham Risica
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  3. Eric Lamy
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  4. William Goedel
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Contributions

JH contributed to the conceptualization, formal analysis, methodology, software, visualization, and writing of the original draft of this paper. PR contributed to the data curation and reviewing and editing of this paper. EL contributed to the data curation for this paper. WG contributed to developing the methodology, reviewing and editing, and supervising this process.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jihwan Hwang.

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Hwang, J., Risica, P.M., Lamy, E. et al. Association between the social vulnerability index and breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates in Rhode Island. Cancer Causes Control (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-024-01872-6

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