Certain racial and ethnic groups are travelling farther for lung cancer screening
A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine found that distance travelled to lung cancer screening (LCS) facilities varied by race and ethnicity.
Despite this, “those differences are only partially explained by rurality,” according to a release.
The research was led by individuals from Washington State University and Swedish Cancer Institute. They focused especially on American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations compared to non-Hispanic White (NHW). AI/AN individuals travelled the longest distance to an LCS facility (49.6 miles). The other major studied groups travelled 4.4 to 6.9 miles. “For Asian-, Black-, and Hispanic-majority tracts, distance to the nearest LCS were 16%, 39% and 7% shorter, respectively, than those in NHW-majority tracts.” When rurality was taken into account, AI/AN individuals still travelled longer than others.
