The Intersection of Rural Residence and Minority Race/Ethnicity in Cancer Disparities in the United States

Whitney E. Zahnd, Cathryn Murphy, Marie Knoll, Gabriel A. Benavidez, Kelsey R. Day, Radhika Ranganathan, Parthenia Luke, Anja Zgodic, Kewei Shi, Melinda A. Merrell, Elizabeth L. Crouch, Heather M. Brandt and Jan M. Eberth
Additional contact information
Whitney E. Zahnd: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Cathryn Murphy: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Marie Knoll: Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Gabriel A. Benavidez: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Kelsey R. Day: Department of Exercise Science, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Radhika Ranganathan: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Parthenia Luke: College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Anja Zgodic: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Kewei Shi: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Melinda A. Merrell: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Elizabeth L. Crouch: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA
Heather M. Brandt: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA
Jan M. Eberth: Rural & Minority Health Research Center, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 4, 1-26

Abstract: One in every twenty-five persons in America is a racial/ethnic minority who lives in a rural area. Our objective was to summarize how racism and, subsequently, the social determinants of health disproportionately affect rural racial/ethnic minority populations, provide a review of the cancer disparities experienced by rural racial/ethnic minority groups, and recommend policy, research, and intervention approaches to reduce these disparities. We found that rural Black and American Indian/Alaska Native populations experience greater poverty and lack of access to care, which expose them to greater risk of developing cancer and experiencing poorer cancer outcomes in treatment and ultimately survival. There is a critical need for additional research to understand the disparities experienced by all rural racial/ethnic minority populations. We propose that policies aim to increase access to care and healthcare resources for these communities. Further, that observational and interventional research should more effectively address the intersections of rurality and race/ethnicity through reduced structural and interpersonal biases in cancer care, increased data access, more research on newer cancer screening and treatment modalities, and continued intervention and implementation research to understand how evidence-based practices can most effectively reduce disparities among these populations.

Keywords: rural; racial/ethnic minorities; cancer disparities; access to care; social determinants of health; cancer surveillance; cancer outcomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1384/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1384/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:4:p:1384-:d:492189

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().