Abstract C087: Neighborhood influences on chronic hepatitis B monitoring behaviors among Asian Americans residing in Philadelphia county

Abstract

The incidence of liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer for Asian Americans is almost 2 times greater in comparison to Non-Hispanic white women and men. A major factor that contributes to liver cancer is hepatitis b (HBV) infection, which disproportionally affects Asian Americans, who represent 7% of the total US population but makes up around 58% of HBV-linked hepatocellular carcinoma cases. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the neighborhood environment, including neighborhood walkability, Asianicity, and neighborhood disadvantage on HBV monitoring related behavior such as doctors' visits and HBV blood testing among Asian HBV patients. A total of 160 study participants were recruited from March 2019 to March 2020 through combined recruitment approaches, including through medical record review by authorized staff from collaborating health clinics, pharmacies, or community health centers and community-based organizations including racial/ethnic based educational and community centers, religion-based organizations, and senior centers. Study measures included baseline assessment information including sociodemographics, HBV infection history, HBV monitoring behavior, and knowledge about HBV prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Neighborhood level measures included neighborhood disadvantage, Asianicity, and neighborhood walkability using census and online measures. Hierarchical generalized linear models (HGLM) were used to account for individual nested within neighborhoods for predicting factors associated with doctor’s visits and blood test. Greater neighborhood disadvantage (OR=0.97, 95% CI=0.95-0.99, p=0.0041) and Asianicity (OR=0.97, 95% CI=0.95-0.98, p=0.0003), and lower neighborhood walkability (OR=1.06, 95% CI=1.02-1.09, p=0.0039) were associated with a lower likelihood of doctor visits for CHB. Greater Asianicity (OR=0.97, 95% CI=0.96-0.99, p=0.0044) was associated with a lower likelihood of HBV blood testing in the past 6 months. Evident neighborhood environment effects suggest the need to incorporate these factors into interventions to enhance HBV self-monitoring behaviors and slow disease progression of chronic HBV. Citation Format: Aisha Bhimla, Wenyue Lu, Lin Zhu, Yin Tan, Di Zhu, Jade Truehart, Ming-Chin Yeh, Minhhuyen Nguyen, Grace X. Ma. Neighborhood influences on chronic hepatitis B monitoring behaviors among Asian Americans residing in Philadelphia county [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr C087.