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

Author(s)

Whitney Zahnd, University of South CarolinaFollow
Cathryn Murphy, University of South CarolinaFollow
Marie Knoll
Gabriel A. Benavidez, University of South CarolinaFollow
Kelsey R. Day, University of South CarolinaFollow
Radhika Ranganathan, University of South CarolinaFollow
Parthenia Luke, University of South CarolinaFollow
Anja Zgodic, University of South CarolinaFollow
Kewei Shi, University of South CarolinaFollow
Melinda A. Merrell, University of South CarolinaFollow
Elizabeth L. Crouch, University of South CarolinaFollow
Heather M. Brandt, University of South CarolinaFollow
Jan Eberth, University of South CarolinaFollow

Document Type

Article

Subject Area(s)

African Americans; Ethnicity; Health Services Accessibility; Healthcare Disparities; Humans; Minority Groups; Neoplasms; Rural Population; United States (epidemiology)

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.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041384

Publication Info

Published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 18, Issue 4, 2021, pages 1384-.

Rights

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

APA Citation

Zahnd, W., Murphy, C., Knoll, M., Benavidez, G., Day, K., & Ranganathan, R. et al. (2021). The Intersection of Rural Residence and Minority Race/Ethnicity in Cancer Disparities in the United States. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 18(4), 1384. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041384