Neighborhood deprivation tied to lower breast cancer screening

Sep 2, 2026

Research shows that women living in high-deprivation neighborhoods are significantly less likely to undergo breast cancer screening mammography, with screening rates dropping from 75.7% in low-deprivation areas to 66.2% in high-deprivation areas. Black women and women who prefer non-English languages face additional barriers to screening, highlighting the need for targeted, equity-focused interventions to reduce cancer screening disparities.

9.5% screening gap: High-deprivation areas showed 66.2% screening rates versus 75.7% in low-deprivation neighborhoods
Racial disparities: Black women had 56% lower odds of screening (OR, 0.44) after adjustment for other factors
Language barriers: Women preferring non-English languages had 67% lower screening odds (OR, 0.33)
National baseline: Only 72.2% of women over 40 and 78.5% of women aged 50-74 receive regular mammography screening
Solution focus: Area Deprivation Index (ADI) can guide targeted health initiatives to reach underserved populations

Higher neighborhood deprivation is tied to lower screening mammography use, according to research published September 1 in Academic Radiology.

Breast cancer screening was lower in high-deprivation areas, wrote a group led by Lewis Jordan, MD, from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The group also found that Black women and women who preferred non-English languages were less likely to undergo screening mammography.

“Targeted, equity-focused interventions addressing neighborhood, racial, and language-related barriers are needed to reduce screening disparities,” Jordan and co-authors wrote.

The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is a validated measure of neighborhood deprivation designed to guide service delivery in underserved areas. Living in areas of higher deprivation leads to poor health outcomes.

National rates report that 72.2% of women above the age 40 and 78.5% of women aged 50 to 74 years undergo regular screening mammography. Residing in a neighborhood with greater neighborhood deprivation can lead to higher breast cancer mortality.

Lewis and colleagues studied associations between the ADI and screening mammography use within an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) associated with a multicenter academic medical center in the Upper Midwest.

This retrospective cross-sectional study included women aged 40 to 85 years attributed to the ACO in 2022, based on criteria from the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality.

Among 7,463 women with geographic data, 74.4% completed breast cancer screening. Low-deprivation areas experienced a 75.7% screening rate compared to 66.2% in high-deprivation areas. Increasing ADI decile showed significant ties to reduced screening in unadjusted (odds ratio [OR], 0.89, p < 0.001) and adjusted analyses (OR, 0.9, p < 0.001).

Finally, Black women (OR, 0.44, p < 0.001) and women preferring non-English languages (OR, 0.33, p < 0.001) had lower screening odds after multivariable adjustment.

The study authors called for neighborhood deprivation measures to support future research projects and drive quality improvement initiatives.

“The use of ADI and the neighborhood atlas provide a unique resource to target populations for health care initiatives, including but not limited to increasing mammography utilization,” they wrote. “Similar methods can be used to investigate utilization of screening efforts for different cancers including lung and colon cancer.”

The team also called for larger and long-term studies to investigate overall cancer screening trends based on neighborhood deprivation.

Read the full study here.