Racial/Ethnic Differences in the Impact of Neighborhood Social and Built Environment on Breast Cancer Risk: The Neighborhoods and Breast Cancer Study (Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention)

Neighborhood socioeconomic status (nSES) has been found to be associated with breast cancer risk. It remains unclear whether this association applies across racial/ethnic groups independent of individual-level factors and is attributable to other neighborhood characteristics. Authors examined the independent and joint associations of education and nSES with odds of breast cancer.

The authors found that women living in the highest versus lowest nSES quintile had a nearly two-fold greater odds of breast cancer, with elevated odds for non-Hispanic whites (NHW), African Americans, US-born Hispanics, and foreign-born Hispanics. Considering education and nSES jointly, odds ratios were increased for low education/high nSES NHWs, high education/high nSES NHWs, and high education/high nSES foreign-born Hispanics relative to their race/ethnicity/nativity-specific low education/low nSES counterparts.

Adjustment for urban and mixed-land use characteristics attenuated the nSES associations for most racial/ethnic/nativity groups except NHWs. 

• Shannon M. Conroy
• Ninez A. Ponce, PhD, MPP
• et al