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Health Disparities

Cancer health disparities are differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of cancer and related adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States. These population groups may be characterized by gender, age, race, ethnicity, education, income, social class, disability, geographic location, or sexual orientation.

The Applied Research Program's (ARP's) mission is to understand how and why cancer care and control activities in the United States influence patterns of care and trends in cancer incidence, morbidity, mortality and survival. Pursuit of this mission is possible through ARP's support of methodologic research to improve survey data collection and clinical databases, development of assessment tools for use in clinical trials and observational studies, as well as analysis of existing cancer control data. These data are used to evaluate patterns and trends in cancer-associated health behaviors and risk factors, health care services, economics, and outcomes, including patient-reported outcomes. Measuring social inequalities and monitoring health disparities across the cancer control continuum is an integral part of ARP's work.

The Health Disparities Calculator (HD*Calc) is statistical software designed to generate multiple summary measures to evaluate and monitor health disparities. HD*Calc can be used either as an extension of SEER*Stat -- allowing users to import Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data -- or with other population-based health data, including data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)External Web Site Policy, Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS), and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Download the Health Disparities Research Resources Fact Sheet.


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Last modified:
15 Oct 2012
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