(132) Demographic Multivariate Analysis of Oropharyngeal Cancer Rates in Texas Counties

Introduction: Texas accumulated the third highest case total for oropharyngeal cancer among states in the years 2015 to 2019. The state’s high regional diversity prompts the question; how do the demographic characteristics of Texas counties correlate with the respective oropharyngeal cancer burden?

Methods: Retrospective observational review design. Cancer data was extracted from the NIH National Cancer Institute. The cancer incidence and mortality per 100,000 was set for Oral Cavity and Pharynx, the location was set for Texas, then further stratified by county, and exported. The data collection period spanned 2015-2019 and excluded counties with less than 3 average annual mortalities over the 5 year span. The sample included 48 Texas counties. The US Census Bureau provided data for each county’s median household income, average age, population size, percentage of people with high school education, and percentage of people with bachelor's degree education. The Texas Health and Human services department provided the number of primary care physicians per 100,000 and the estimated medically uninsured population. Observational tools included correlation coefficients, scatter plotting, and geographical mapping to depict the relationships of the chosen variables on the incidence and mortality in each county.

Results: The strongest correlation coefficient of the sample was average age per county (+0.55 incidence, +0.42 mortality). Income had a much stronger negative correlation with mortality compared to incidence (+0.08 incidence, +0.38 mortality). Population size had nearly identical negative correlations with incidence and mortality (-0.34 incidence, -0.33 mortality). Percentage of high school educated adults had positive correlations (+0.30 incidence, 0.08 mortality) while percentage of bachelors degree-educated adults had negative correlations (-0.26 incidence, -0.33 mortality).

Conclusions: Upon investigation, significant differences in incidence and mortality were identified to correlate with demographics such as age, population, income, and educational attainment level among Texas counties.