Grocery Store Access and Incident Cancer Rates Relationships at the County Level
Start Date
April 2025
Location
2nd floor - Library
Abstract
Introduction: Approximately 2,041,910 Americans are projected to have a new (incident) cancer diagnosis in 2025 (Siegel et al.,2025); Kentucky has the highest United States total incident cancer rate at 508/100,000 (CDC.gov). Improper diet increases cancer risk, caused by food deserts (Healthline,2021;NIH,2024). Food Environment Index (FEI) and food deserts give insight into the quantity of grocery stores in a census tract. Examining county-level links between incident cancer rates (ICRs) and grocery store access may suggest safer, noninvasive statewide strategies to reduce cancer. Do grocery store access indicators affect incident cancer rates?
Methods: Correlation tests, two-tailed student t-tests, and ArcGIS mapping were performed in a retrospective cross-sectional study with data from 2019-2022 of 120 Kentucky counties. Grocery store data from OpenStreetMap, USDA food desert data, and cancer data from NIH and CDC were housed in Excel and geocoded in ArcGIS. Each indicator was mapped at county level. Incident cancer rates for Kentucky counties with high and low indicators were tested. Data were tested at the 0.05 significance level. Limitations include grouping all cancers into one category.
Results: The 5 highest and 5 lowest counties’ ICR per indicator were compared; FEI (p-value=0.000514) and store locations (p-value=0.0001) were statistically significant. Food deserts (p-value=0.174) were statistically insignificant. FEI (r=-0.086) and food deserts (r=-0.13) have no correlation, while grocery stores had a moderate negative correlation (r=-0.429).
Conclusions: Counties with a higher FEI and lower grocery density have higher incident cancer rates. However, no relationship between counties with food deserts were found.
Grocery Store Access and Incident Cancer Rates Relationships at the County Level
2nd floor - Library
Introduction: Approximately 2,041,910 Americans are projected to have a new (incident) cancer diagnosis in 2025 (Siegel et al.,2025); Kentucky has the highest United States total incident cancer rate at 508/100,000 (CDC.gov). Improper diet increases cancer risk, caused by food deserts (Healthline,2021;NIH,2024). Food Environment Index (FEI) and food deserts give insight into the quantity of grocery stores in a census tract. Examining county-level links between incident cancer rates (ICRs) and grocery store access may suggest safer, noninvasive statewide strategies to reduce cancer. Do grocery store access indicators affect incident cancer rates?
Methods: Correlation tests, two-tailed student t-tests, and ArcGIS mapping were performed in a retrospective cross-sectional study with data from 2019-2022 of 120 Kentucky counties. Grocery store data from OpenStreetMap, USDA food desert data, and cancer data from NIH and CDC were housed in Excel and geocoded in ArcGIS. Each indicator was mapped at county level. Incident cancer rates for Kentucky counties with high and low indicators were tested. Data were tested at the 0.05 significance level. Limitations include grouping all cancers into one category.
Results: The 5 highest and 5 lowest counties’ ICR per indicator were compared; FEI (p-value=0.000514) and store locations (p-value=0.0001) were statistically significant. Food deserts (p-value=0.174) were statistically insignificant. FEI (r=-0.086) and food deserts (r=-0.13) have no correlation, while grocery stores had a moderate negative correlation (r=-0.429).
Conclusions: Counties with a higher FEI and lower grocery density have higher incident cancer rates. However, no relationship between counties with food deserts were found.
