As you know, I tend to post many links to articles with a statistical component. Yesterday I read an interesting article in the Kansas City Star (AP) titled Racial gap in colon cancer deaths is widening.
Colon and rectal cancer death rates are now nearly 50 percent higher in blacks than in whites, according to American Cancer Society research being released Monday.
The gap has been growing since the mid-1970s, when colon cancer death rates for the two racial groups were nearly equal. …
So, the first thing that comes to my mind is economic status differences that prevent blacks from getting cancer-preventing exams. I thought that would be the focus of the story. Indeed, a Reuters article on the same study, U.S. blacks lag whites in colorectal cancer progress, says:
"We are seeing much greater declines among whites than among African Americans. And we think the primary reason for that is different access to and utilization of colorectal cancer screening tests," Ward said in a telephone interview.
Blacks are less likely to be screened and more likely to be diagnosed after the cancer has spread beyond the colon, making it far deadlier. Blacks also are less likely to get the recommended surgical treatment and therapy, the report said.
That is precisely the conclusion I intuitively expected.
However, the Kansas City Star article includes some interesting data at the end of the article that is not presented in the Reuters article:
The two groups' death rates were similar until the 1980s when colon cancer began to kill blacks at a higher rate than whites.
Researchers say it's not clear why black mortality jumped in the 1980s, but it started a gap that continued to widen even after the black rate began to fall again.
Colon cancer deaths can be prevented by early diagnosis through screening and quality care. The screening rate for whites is 50 percent compared to just 40 percent for blacks.
The screening rate for Hispanics is an even-lower 32 percent, but the death rate for Hispanics – fewer than 13 per 100,000 – is lower than it is for whites.
That paradox is not unique to colon cancer: Poorly insured Hispanics have fared better than whites and blacks in several measures of cancer and heart disease. …
So how does Ward conclude the black and white difference is primarily due to screening? I don't know (and she may be right.) The Reuters article will make it into the public square as another example of an inadequate health care system for the poor. But the fascinating question is why Hispanics seem to fare so much better.
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