188 – Contributed Oral Poster Presentations: Health Policy Statistics Section
Explore Quantitative Methods in Health Disparity Measurement
Yufeng Li
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Bradford Jackson
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Mona Fouad
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Edward Partridge
University of Alabama at Birmingham
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.