NIMHD Grant on Segregation and Breast Health Disparities

Grant Source

---

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

Contributors

---

UT Health Science Center
Shelly White-Means, PhD, Director of CHEER
Sam Li, PhD, Assistant Professor, Clinical Pharmacy and Translational Science
Arash Shaban-Nejad, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics

University of Memphis
Jill Dapremont, Professor and Division Director of Family, Community, Health System Science,

Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change
Daphene McFerrin, Executive Director 

School of Social Work
Elana Delavega, PhD, MSW, Professor  

Grant Abstract

---

Policy Pathways to Equity in Racially Segregated Areas with Concentrated Poverty

Black women face an unequal opportunity to survive breast cancer, when compared with white women; they are 1.43 times more likely to die, even though their incidence rates are lower (127.8 vs 133.7, respectively). Vital for designing modifiable policy pathways to breast health equity, are identifying the roles of 1) disadvantaged racially segregated neighborhoods (i.e., segregated communities that are densely populated by blacks who live in poverty) and 2) factors driven by community decisions and policies that created these disadvantaged racially segregated neighborhoods. Our overall objective is to determine the most effective policy pathways for disbanding the role of disadvantaged racially segregated neighborhoods in facilitating disparities in two breast cancer outcomes –late-stage diagnosis and mortality. Enriched by a mixed-method design, we leverage use of longitudinal population-based state Cancer registry, CDC mortality, and Census zip code data, and also focus group/interview data from breast cancer survivors, city planners, political analysts, and policymakers in Memphis, TN, to delineate modifiable place-related system factors that can reduce racial disparities in breast health. Successful completion of this research will provide the necessary foundation for designing public policy interventions that focus on equity and social justice concerns to resolve disparities in various disease states.