A catchment and location-allocation analysis of mammography access in Delaware, US: implications for disparities in geographic access to breast cancer screening
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Webster J
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10631173 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:PURPOSE:To assess the association between geographic access to mammography facilities and women's mammography utilization frequency. METHODS:Using data from the population-based 1995-2007 Wisconsin Women's Health study, we used proportional odds and logistic regression to test whether driving times to mammography facilities and the number of mammography facilities within 10 km of women's homes were associated with mammography frequency among women aged 50-74 years and whether associations differed between Rural-Urban Commuting Areas and income and education groups. RESULTS:We found evidence for nonlinear relationships between geographic access and mammography utilization (nonlinear effects of driving times and facility density, P-values .01 and .005, respectively). Having at least one nearby mammography facility was associated with greater mammography frequency among urban women (1 vs. 0 facilities, odds ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval, 1.09-1.47), with similar effects among rural women. Adding more facilities had decreasing marginal effects. Long driving times tended to be associated with lower mammography frequency. We found no effect modification by income, education, or urbanicity. In rural settings, mammography nonuse was higher, facility density smaller, and driving times to facilities were longer. CONCLUSIONS:Having at least one mammography facility near one's home may increase mammography utilization, with decreasing effects per each additional facility.
| S-EPMC5819606 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionArkansans have some of the worst breast cancer mortality to incidence ratios in the United States (5th for Blacks, 4th for Whites, 7th overall). Screening mammography allows for early detection and significant reductions in mortality, yet not all women have access to these life-saving services. Utilization in Arkansas is well below the national average, and the number of FDA-approved screening facilities has decreased by 38% since 2001. Spatial accessibility plays an important role in whether women receive screenings.MethodsWe use constrained optimization models within a geographic information system (GIS) to probabilistically allocate women to nearby screening facilities, accounting for facility capacity and patient travel time. We examine accessibility results by rurality derived from rural-urban commuting area (RUCA) codes.ResultsUnder most models, screening capacity is insufficient to meet theoretical demand given travel constraints. Approximately 80% of Arkansan women live within 30 minutes of a screening facility, most of which are located in urban and suburban areas. The majority of unallocated demand was in Small towns and Rural areas.ConclusionsGeographic disparities in screening mammography accessibility exist across Arkansas, but women living in Rural areas have particularly poor spatial access. Mobile mammography clinics can remove patient travel time constraints to help meet rural demand. More broadly, optimization models and GIS can be applied to many studies of healthcare accessibility in rural populations.
| S-EPMC7681135 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The rapid spread of COVID-19 across the world has raised concerns about the responsiveness of cities and healthcare systems during pandemics. Recent studies try to model how the number of COVID-19 infections will likely grow and impact the demand for hospitalization services at national and regional levels. However, less attention has been paid to the geographic access to COVID-19 healthcare services and to hospitals' response capacity at the local level, particularly in urban areas in the Global South. This paper shows how transport accessibility analysis can provide actionable information to help improve healthcare coverage and responsiveness. It analyzes accessibility to COVID-19 healthcare at high spatial resolution in the 20 largest cities of Brazil. Using network-distance metrics, we estimate the vulnerable population living in areas with poor access to healthcare facilities that could either screen or hospitalize COVID-19 patients. We then use a new balanced floating catchment area (BFCA) indicator to estimate spatial, income, and racial inequalities in access to hospitals with intensive care unit (ICU) beds and mechanical ventilators while taking into account congestion effects. Based on this analysis, we identify substantial social and spatial inequalities in access to health services during the pandemic. The availability of ICU equipment varies considerably between cities, and it is substantially lower among black and poor communities. The study maps territorial inequalities in healthcare access and reflects on different policy lessons that can be learned for other countries based on the Brazilian case.
| S-EPMC7879934 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveStudies have shown that there is sufficient availability of mammography; however, little is known about geographic variation in capacity. The purpose of this study was to determine the locations and extent of over/undersupply of mammography in 14 southern states from 2002 to 2008.Data sourcesMammography facility data were collected from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Population estimates, used to estimate the potential demand for mammography, were obtained from GeoLytics Inc.Study designUsing the two-step floating catchment area method, we calculated spatial accessibility at the block group level and categorized the resulting index to represent the extent of under/oversupply relative to the potential demand.Principal findingsResults show decreasing availability of mammography over time. The extent of over/undersupply varied significantly across the South. Reductions in capacity occurred primarily in areas with an oversupply of machines, resulting in a 68 percent decrease in the percent of women living in excess capacity areas from 2002 to 2008. The percent of women living in poor capacity areas rose by 10 percent from 2002 to 2008.ConclusionsOur study found decreasing mammography availability and capacity over time, with substantial variation across states. This information can assist providers and policy makers in their business planning and resource allocation decisions.
| S-EPMC3922472 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is known to reduce morbidity and mortality for patients with cardiac conditions. Sociodemographic disparities in accessing CR persist and could be related to the distance between where patients live and where CR facilities are located. Our objective is to determine the association between sociodemographic characteristics and geographic proximity to CR facilities. Methods and Results We identified actively operating CR facilities across Los Angeles County and used multivariable Poisson regression to examine the association between sociodemographic characteristics of residential proximity to the nearest CR facility. We also calculated the proportion of residents per area lacking geographic proximity to CR facilities across sociodemographic characteristics, from which we calculated prevalence ratios. We found that racial and ethnic minorities, compared with non-Hispanic White individuals, more frequently live ≥5 miles from a CR facility. The greatest geographic disparity was seen for non-Hispanic Black individuals, with a 2.73 (95% CI, 2.66-2.79) prevalence ratio of living at least 5 miles from a CR facility. Notably, the municipal region with the largest proportion of census tracts comprising mostly non-White residents (those identifying as Hispanic or a race other than White), with median annual household income <$60 000, contained no CR facilities despite ranking among the county's highest in population density. Conclusions Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic characteristics are significantly associated with lack of geographic proximity to a CR facility. Interventions targeting geographic as well as nongeographic factors may be needed to reduce disparities in access to exercise-based CR programs. Such interventions could increase the potential of CR to benefit patients at high risk for developing adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
| S-EPMC9683686 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Investigating geographic variations in mammography screening participation and breast cancer incidence help improve prevention strategies to reduce the burden of breast cancer. This study examined the suitability of health insurance claims data for assessing and explaining geographic variations in mammography screening participation and breast cancer incidence at the district level. Based on screening unit data (1,181,212 mammography screening events), cancer registry data (13,241 incident breast cancer cases) and claims data (147,325 mammography screening events; 1,778 incident breast cancer cases), screening unit and claims-based standardized participation ratios (SPR) of mammography screening as well as cancer registry and claims-based standardized incidence ratios (SIR) of breast cancer between 2011 and 2014 were estimated for the 46 districts of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. Bland-Altman analyses were performed to benchmark claims-based SPR and SIR against screening unit and cancer registry data. Determinants of district-level variations were investigated at the individual and contextual level using claims-based multilevel logistic regression analysis. In claims and benchmark data, SPR showed considerable variations and SIR hardly any. Claims-based estimates were between 0.13 below and 0.14 above (SPR), and between 0.36 below and 0.36 above (SIR) the benchmark. Given the limited suitability of health insurance claims data for assessing geographic variations in breast cancer incidence, only mammography screening participation was investigated in the multilevel analysis. At the individual level, 10 of 31 Elixhauser comorbidities were negatively and 11 positively associated with mammography screening participation. Age and comorbidities did not contribute to the explanation of geographic variations. At the contextual level, unemployment rate was negatively and the proportion of employees with an academic degree positively associated with mammography screening participation. Unemployment, income, education, foreign population and type of district explained 58.5% of geographic variations. Future studies should combine health insurance claims data with individual data on socioeconomic characteristics, lifestyle factors, psychological factors, quality of life and health literacy as well as contextual data on socioeconomic characteristics and accessibility of mammography screening. This would allow a comprehensive investigation of geographic variations in mammography screening participation and help to further improve prevention strategies for reducing the burden of breast cancer.
| S-EPMC6759661 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To examine racial differences in mammography use and its determinants in the City of St. Louis, MO, USA, we recruited women age 40 or older using random-digit dialing to (1) examine the difference in mammography use between white women and African American women and (2) identify individual- and census-tract-level risk factors of nonadherence to mammography. During telephone interviews, we inquired about mammography use and several demographic, psychosocial, and health behavior variables. We determined the residential census tracts of study subjects using a geographic information system. The rate of mammography use was 68.0% among white women and 74.7% among African American women (P = 0.022). African American women were more likely to have mammograms than white woman (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.71; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09-2.69). System-level barriers to mammography and heavy smoking were associated with lower mammography use among both white and African American women. Personal-experience barriers to mammography and no physician recommendation also were independently associated with mammography use among white women. White women residing within a historic geographic cluster area of late-stage breast cancer were less likely to have mammograms (adjusted OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.22-0.80), while African American women residing within a historic geographic cluster area of late-stage breast cancer were equally likely to have mammograms (adjusted OR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.28-2.24). Neither individual- nor census-tract-level socioeconomic status was associated with mammography screening. These findings suggest that there may be a greater need for increasing mammography use among white women, especially in the historic cluster area of late-stage breast cancer in St. Louis.
| S-EPMC2527433 | biostudies-other
Project description:Supported by the 10% set-aside funds in the Community Mental Health Block grant, distributed at the state level, coordinated specialty care (CSC) have been widely disseminated throughout the U.S. This study explores variations in the geographical accessibility of CSC programs by neighborhood level characteristics in Washington State. CSC locations were geocoded. Socioeconomic neighborhood deprivation (i.e., Area deprivation index) and rurality (i.e., Rural-Urban Commuting Area codes) were neighborhood level characteristics extracted from the 2018 American Community Survey. Geographic accessibility of CSC was assessed using a two-step floating catchment area technique and multilevel linear models were used to examine the association between specific neighborhood characteristics and geographic accessibility. The association between access and socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods varied differentially by neighborhood rurality (an interaction effect). Model estimates indicated that the least deprived, metropolitan neighborhoods had the best access (M = 0.38; CI: 0.34, 0.42) and rural neighborhoods in the second most deprived quartile had the worst access (M = 0.16; CI: 0.11, 0.21) to CSC. There was a clear decrease in accessibility for more rural neighborhoods, regardless of other neighborhood characteristics. In conclusions, findings provide important insight into how resource distribution contributes to geographic disparities in access to CSC. The use of spatial analytic techniques has the potential to identify specific neighborhoods and populations where there is a need to expand and increase availability of CSC to ensure access to rural and socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods.
| S-EPMC9119810 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundLung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States (U.S.), with non-White people who smoke often bearing the burden of the highest rate of LC mortality. This is often due to later stage diagnoses, leading to poor prognosis and outcomes. We assess here how the eligibility criteria for LC screening set by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could contribute to racial disparities in screening access.MethodsThis paper analyzes data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an annual survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that gathers health and nutrition data from a representative sample of the U.S. population. After excluding those who were ineligible for LC screening, the final cohort of participants was 5,001, which consisted of 2,669 people who formerly smoked and 2,332 people who currently smoke.ResultsOut of 608 participants who were eligible for LC screening, 77.5% were non-Hispanic White (NHW) and 8.7% were non-Hispanic Black (NHB) participants versus 69.4% and 10.8% among 4,393 ineligible participants. Age, pack-years, and age along with pack-years were the most frequent reasons for ineligibility. LC screening ineligible NHW participants were statistically significantly older and had higher mean pack-years than the other racial and ethnic groups. NHB participants among the ineligible group had higher urinary cotinine levels compared to NHW participants.ConclusionsThis paper underscores the need for more individualized risk estimates when determining eligibility for LC screening, which could include biomarkers of smoking exposure. The analysis shows that current screening criteria, which rely solely on factors such as age and pack years, contribute to LC racial disparities.
| S-EPMC10261853 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe primary lung allocation unit was expanded from the donation service area to a 250-mile radius in 2017. Prior to the change, geographic disparities in donor lung availability impacted waitlist outcomes. We sought to determine if the new allocation system improved these disparities.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study comparing the 2-year period before and after the change. Donor lung availability was defined as the ratio of donor lungs to waitlist candidates in the primary allocation unit. Transplant centers were divided into quartiles by donor lung availability. Multivariable competing risk models were used to determine the association between lung availability and waitlist outcomes. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models compared post-transplant survival.ResultsPrior to the allocation change, the unadjusted transplant rate at centers in the lowest and highest quartiles was 132 and 607 transplants per 100 waitlist years. Candidates in the lowest quartile of donor lung availability had a 61% adjusted lower transplantation rate compared to candidates in highest quartile (sub-hazard ratio [sHR]: 0.39, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.34-0.44). After the allocation change, the disparity decreased resulting in an unadjusted transplant rate of 141 and 309 among centers in the lowest and highest quartiles. Candidates in the lowest quartile had a 38% adjusted lower transplantation rate compared to those in the highest (sHR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.57-0.68). There was no significant difference in 1-year post-transplant survival.ConclusionsAlthough the expansion of the primary allocation unit improved disparities in waitlist outcomes without any change in post-transplant survival, there still remain significant differences due to geography.
| S-EPMC9326499 | biostudies-literature