Breast Cancer and Access to Health Care: A Spatial and Statistical Analysis

Abstract

This research examines both the spatial and non-spatial relationships between breast cancer mortality rate and percent of population living below poverty, health care facilities per 1,000 people and percent urban. The data is derived from the California Cancer Registry 2007-2009, 2010 Census, American Community Survey 2007-2009 and Cal-Atlas 2010, and analyzed for all 58 counties in California. ArcGIS and SPSS are used for explorative mapping, clustering analysis, and regression models. These tests are able to determine if there is a correlation between breast cancer mortality rate and the other three variables. After the statistical analyses were completed it can be concluded that all three independent variables did show correlation to breast cancer mortality rate that was statistically significant. Based on these results, further research should be done to connect other socioeconomic variables to increased rates in breast cancer mortally.