THE ROLE OF RACE AND RESIDENCE IN DETERMINING STAGE AT DIAGNOSIS OF BREAST-CANCER

Breast cancer kills more than 46,000 women each year. Previous researc h has found that minorities and those who reside in geographically rem ote settings are particularly vulnerable. However; virtually no resear ch has been done on the potential ''double jeopardy'' faced by rural m inority women. This research examines (1) the extent to which racial a nd residential differences contribute to differences in stage at diagn osis; (2) the existence of an interaction between race and residence, which may place black rural women at greater risk; and (3) the influen ce of both individual and structural characteristics on racial and res idential differences. The findings indicate that rural black women are diagnosed with breast cancer much later than are black urban women or whites of either residence. A number of individual and structural var iables were influential in predicting stage at diagnosis, yet none of these accounted entirely for racial differences.