Project Summary:
In 2025, there will be an estimated 40,000 Wisconsin residents diagnosed with cancer, and over 11,500 residents will die from cancer. Racial cancer disparities in Wisconsin have been persistent. It is well known that access to safe, affordable, quality housing is a key social determinant of health that can impact many health outcomes. Housing instability includes being unhoused as well as facing difficulty paying rent, being evicted, being subject to frequent moves, or having a high housing cost burden, leaving little for other needs. Housing stability impacts many populations, but disproportionately impacts low income racially and ethnically minoritized residents. Housing instability can impact health through disruptions in care, environmental exposures, constrained resources for non-housing expenses, including healthcare, and stress. For individuals diagnosed with cancer, these burdens can be magnified, particularly given interruptions in employability and financial stress related to cancer care. However, few studies have characterized housing instability among individuals with cancer.
The goal of this project is to characterize the degree to which racially and ethnically minoritized Wisconsin cancer survivors experience housing instability (i.e., frequent moves, eviction, being unhoused) and explore how housing instability impacts their health. The project team will collect comprehensive residential histories on approximately 50,000 Wisconsin residents diagnosed with cancer between 2021 and 2023 and examine differences in residential stability by race and ethnicity. They will then comprehensively assess housing instability and health status among 300 racially and ethnically minoritized Wisconsin cancer survivors through a combination of residential address histories and surveys and explore the housing experiences of cancer survivors using in-depth qualitative interviews. This study will illuminate housing instability burdens to reveal opportunities for intervention.