Kendra L Ratnapradipa

Neighborhood disorder and ovarian cancer survival in Black women

Abstract Ovarian cancer (OC) is the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality among women in the US. Black women experience significantly lower OC survival than White women. Evidence suggests that this disparity is not solely the result of barriers to healthcare access but may also be impacted by other factors, including neighborhood social characteristics. To investigate this further, this study developed an approach for remotely estimating the degree of physical disorder (PD) in neighborhoods using structured audits of Google Street View imagery for participants in the AACES, a multi-site population-based study of Black women newly diagnosed with OC. We then assessed whether neighborhood disadvantage (ND) and PD were associated with overall survival. We fit Weibull accelerated failure time models to assess the association of both PD and ND with survival among 471 Black women with OC (n = 317 deaths). Both PD (event time ratio (ETR), 0.99; 95% CI, 0.98, 1.00) and Area Deprivation Index (ETR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.94, 1.00) were associated with shorter survival. The results suggest that both physical and social neighborhood characteristics may impact survival in woman with OC, but further research is warranted.

Mobile Health (mHealth) Interventions to Increase Cancer Screening Rates in Hispanic/Latinx Populations: A Scoping Review

Hispanic/Latinx persons have disproportionately lower breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates than non-Hispanic White (NHW) persons. This low participation in cancer screening results in late-stage cancer diagnosis among Hispanic persons compared to NHW persons. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions effectively improve cancer screening rates in the general population; however, few reviews about mHealth interventions are tailored to Hispanic populations. This is important to investigate given that Hispanic persons differ from NHW persons with regard to culture, language, and health care utilization. Therefore, in this study, we investigated: (a) What types of mHealth interventions have been undertaken to increase cancer screening rates among Hispanic persons in the United States? (b) How effective have these interventions been? and (c) What features of these interventions help increase cancer screening rates? Searches conducted during December 2020 identified 10 articles published between January 2017 and December 2020 that met our inclusion criteria. The review revealed that mHealth interventions mainly provided education about cancer and cancer screening using videos, PowerPoint slides, and interactive multimedia. mHealth interventions that effectively improved screening behavior were mainly for easy-to-screen cancers like skin and cervical cancer. Finally, reviewed studies did not provide details on how cultural adaptations were made, and it is unclear what specific features of mHealth interventions increase cancer screening rates among Hispanic persons. Future research should identify and evaluate the effects of different components of culturally tailored interventions on cancer screening. Public health practitioners and health care providers should tailor mHealth approaches to their clients or patients and practice environment.