Targeted Prostate Cancer Outreach in Newark, NJ:

A GIS Approach to Reduce Health Disparities

William Montgomery, Ph.D. – Dept of Geoscience, New Jersey City University Satish Ramrup - Dept of Geoscience, New Jersey City University Joanne K. Fagan, Ph.D. - Institute for Elimination of Health Disparities, UMDNJ John Grew, Ph.D. – Dept of Biology, New Jersey City University Diane Brown, Ph.D., Institute for Elimination of Health Disparities, UMDNJ

Bio

Satish Ramrup – senior at NJCU, pursuing a B.S in Environmental Science.

Worked under the leadership of Dr. William Montgomery

The Problem

There is a significant disparity in prostate cancer incidence and mortality between African American males and white males in NJ :– Incidence* = 158.3 (white) vs 267.8 (Afr-American)– Mortality* = 24.9 (white) vs 62.0 (Afr-American)

Efforts to reduce this disparity have been relatively unsuccessful to date.

* (per 10,000)

EXPORT Project Goals

Improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities by…

Improving participation in prostate cancer screening through…

Focused outreach efforts into those areas of greatest need (African American males 40 and older) guided by…

GIS-based mapping of demographics & community assets (barbershops, churches)

Methodology:• Use American FactFinder to download Census P12 B data (number of African-Americans by age group per Census Tract)

Methodology

• Use MS Excel and P12B data to calculate number of African-American males 40 and older per census tract – Note “STFID”

Methodology• Create GIS Base Map with Census Tracts – Note STFID

Methodology• Use STFID as Primary Key to Join P12B data to Census Tracts• (Maryland example of the technique)

Methodology• Acquire community asset information (example from Maryland)

150 Main Street

Main Street

100 200

• Street address listed in asset database

• Street lines & endpoint addresses listed in TIGER street data

• GIS creates point at estimated location of address

Map community assets via geocoding and Census 2000 TIGER street / road data

Initial Results• All assets in map area (Maryland example)

• Possible “information overload”• Where does one start?

Focus our Efforts:Identify assets nearest those in greatest need

• Create ¼-mile buffers around those census tracts with greatest nos. of African-American males 40 and older

• Intersect those buffers with all mapped community assets

• Result: Community assets within ¼ mile of those in greatest need

Results

Total of 117 barbershops in Essex County buffered 27 barbershops

Total of 253 churches in Essex County buffered 29 churches

The results & new outreach plan

Map shows spatial distribution of the assets of African American males 40 & older.

These assets will be used as the main inroads into the community for prostate cancer outreach & screening.

Acknowledgement

Dr. William Montgomery Dr. Grew (Biology Chair) Dr. Diane Brown Rhonda McCathern

Overall Experience

Great Experience working with an experienced staff

Hope to be granted the opportunity to work with Project Export next summer

Questions ?

Thank you for your time and interest

The UNDNJ-NJCU Project EXPORT team