How do individual characteristics and behaviors affect cancer rates in my neighborhood?
By choice or by circumstance, people tend to live in neighborhoods where they have things in common with other residents, such as race or ethnicity, education, income, occupation or lifestyle. These types of characteristics are important elements of cancer risk. Some examples include: • Cancer risk increases with age. Therefore, we would expect to find higher cancer rates in areas with lots of older residents. • Prostate cancer rates are higher among African-American men than among men of other races or ethnicities. Therefore, we would expect to find higher prostate cancer rates in a largely African-American neighborhood than in a largely Hispanic or Asian neighborhood. • Breast cancer rates are higher among white women than among women of other races. They also tend to be higher among women with higher socioeconomic status. Therefore, we would expect to find higher breast cancer rates in communities with many affluent white women than in other communities with a different racial and s
