Policy Pathways to Equity in Racially Segregated Areas with Concentrated Poverty
ABSTRACT
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.
