project-idea

Cancer Equity Map: County-Level Socio-Behavioral Risk by Race and Cancer Type

High-mortality cancer counties within racial groups have distinct domain-specific socio-behavioral profiles — meaning effective cancer equity interventions need county-level, race-specific, domain-level targeting, not broad demographic averages.

Build an interactive map of U.S. counties showing cancer mortality and socio-behavioral risk domain scores, filterable by race/ethnicity and cancer type. A public health worker in a high-mortality county could look up their county, see which specific domains (economic livelihoods? care access? lifestyle behaviors?) are driving elevated mortality in their population, and get a prioritized list of intervention targets.

The map would layer county-level cancer mortality data (NCI SEER or CDC Wonder) with socio-behavioral risk domain scores derived from the paper's methodology or proxied from publicly available composite indices (County Health Rankings, SDOH Atlas). Filters by race/ethnicity group, cancer type, and mortality tertile would let users drill down to exactly the population and geography they serve.

An 'action mode' would surface evidence-based interventions mapped to each domain — for example, 'touchpoints with care' → patient navigation programs, FQHC access expansion. This connects the diagnosis (where the burden is, and what's driving it) to the response (what programs to fund or advocate for), making the tool directly useful to health departments, cancer coalitions, and advocacy organizations.

Who Is This For?

Public health departments, cancer coalition program managers, health equity advocates, and policy researchers.

Skills & Tools Needed

Geospatial data visualization (Mapbox, Leaflet, or Deck.gl)
Public health data integration (CDC Wonder, NCI SEER, County Health Rankings APIs)
Frontend web development (React or Vue with a mapping library)
Data wrangling and index construction (Python/pandas or R)
Health equity domain knowledge for intervention mapping

Feasibility

medium — All data sources are publicly available, but building a polished, reliable geospatial tool with meaningful socio-behavioral domain breakdowns by race requires significant data engineering and design work.

Inspired by: Within-Group Racial and Ethnic Differences in County-Level Socio-Behavioral Risk Across Cancer Mortality Tertiles in the United States

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