Perspectives on health disparities in cancer

Purpose: The purpose of paper is to review the literature that explores health disparities in cancer and, by using the ‘multi-contextual framework’, to make sense of what is in the literature and what are the gaps in research in health disparities in cancer. Methodology: A mixed analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of the 120 selected studies was conducted. Two coding lists- one with inductive codes and one with deductive codes- were developed and used for categorizing the articles and their placement in two matrixes. A quantitative analyzes was conducted for the 59 articles included in ‘multi-contextual matrix’. Results: All 59 articles included in ‘multi-contextual matrix’ focus on contextual factors. Most articles address ‘cultural context’ (56%) and ‘socioeconomic context’ (32%). Less than 50% focus on ‘health care context’ and ‘demographic context’. The disparity types mainly researched are disparities in quality and access to health care (in 70% of studies).