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. 2012 Jul;126(7):605-12.
doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2012.04.004. Epub 2012 May 11.

An ecological approach to examine lung cancer disparities due to sexual orientation

U Boehmer  1 , A Ozonoff, X Miao
Affiliations

An ecological approach to examine lung cancer disparities due to sexual orientation

U Boehmer et al. Public Health. 2012 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine whether there is an association between geographical areas with greater sexual minority density, defined as gay and lesbian individuals, and incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer.

Study design: As individual surveillance data on sexual orientation are not available, this study used an ecological approach to examine the link between sexual minorities and lung cancer.

Methods: Population-based surveillance data on the incidence of and mortality due to lung cancer from 1996 to 2004 were used from 12 Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registries and 2000 Census data on same-sex-partnered households for the geographical area covered by SEER 12. Using multiple regression models, the county-level association of sexual minority density with incidence or mortality rates for lung cancer was examined.

Results: A significant positive association was found between both incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer and areas with a higher density of sexual minority men, and a significant negative association was found between both incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer and areas with a higher density of sexual minority women.

Conclusions: In the absence of surveillance data, this novel methodological strategy approximates population-level lung cancer disparities for sexual minority populations at the aggregate level.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sexual Minority Men Density by Registry. Plotted means in red and blue are calculated over the counties included in the individual registries or over the entire U.S. respectively. (The bottom and top of the box are the 25th and 75th percentile and the band near the middle of the box is the median. The ends of the whiskers represent the lowest datum still within 1.5 interquartile range (IQR) of the lower quartile, and the highest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the upper quartile. The dotted line represent the range from the lower(higher) quartile to the lowest(highest) datum that is within 1.5 IQR. IQR is the difference between the 75th and the 25th percentile.)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sexual Minority Women Density by Registry. Plotted means in red and blue are calculated over the counties included in the individual registries or over the entire U.S. respectively. (The bottom and top of the box are the 25th and 75th percentile and the band near the middle of the box is the median. The ends of the whiskers represent the lowest datum still within 1.5 interquartile range (IQR) of the lower quartile, and the highest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the upper quartile. The dotted line represents the range from the lower(higher) quartile to the lowest(highest) datum that is within 1.5 IQR. IQR is the difference between the 75th and the 25th percentile.)
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