Explore Quantitative Methods in Health Disparity Measurement

• Activity Number: 188
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2014 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Health Policy Statistics Section
• Author(s): Yufeng Li*+ and Bradford Jackson and Mona Fouad and Edward Partridge and Karan Singh and Sejong Bae
• Companies: University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Keywords: health disparity ; health disparity index ; breast cancer incidence ; population weight

Abstract

Health disparities are gaps in the quality of health and health care that mirror differences in socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic background, and education level. These disparities may stem from many factors, including accessibility of health care, increased risk of disease from occupational exposure, and increased risk of disease from underlying genetic, ethnic, or familial factors. Indicators of health are measured in terms of rates, percentages, proportions, means, or other quantifiable measures. The measurement of disparity between two or more groups is often used absolute difference or simple relative difference, e.g. percentage change. Both measures do not count study population and thus the estimated difference is unstable, especially when less cases are observed, for example breast cancer incidence rate in small rural areas varies significantly by years. In this research, we explored health disparity in breast cancer incidence in Alabama counties using data from Alabama state tumor registry between 2000 and 2011. Several quantitative methods in health disparity measurement including absolute measures, relative measures and health index measures are explored.