(EA01-12-25) Examining Racial Disparities in the Context of Food Security, Poverty, and Allostatic Load

Scientific conference where the work was recently presented: American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting

Date on which the work was previously presented at the scientific conference listed: 04/2025

Objectives: Disparities in cancer incidence and mortality remain a complex and elusive problem. The impact of food security on cancer risk remains unclear and a need to examine racial/ethnic disparities in chronic inflammatory indicators of allostatic load persists. We have previously identified discrepancies between dietary self-report and plasma statuses. This study aimed to more clearly identify racial/ethnic disparities within FI, poverty, and allostatic load.

Methods: The VICTUS study is a cross-sectional secondary analysis of the 2017/2018 NHANES U.S. adults. Subjective survey data was interrogated with laboratory analyses to observe associations between demographic, socioeconomic, health behaviors, nutrition status, and biomarkers of allostatic load (defined as systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index, glucose, albumin, creatinine, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, hs-CRP, red cell distribution width, and cholesterol) to identify racial/ethnic disparities. Pearson’s chi-square, correlation, and ANOVA models were constructed.

Results: From 3083 participants, 38.2% other Hispanic, 37.3% multi-racial, 35.2% Mexican American, and 26.4% non-Hispanic Black adults reported FI, while only 22.5% non-Hispanic White and 5.8% of Asian adults did. Allostatic load and inflammatory biomarkers of SBP, DBP, BMI, HDL, tri, RDW, hs-CRP, alb, creat, (p < 0.001), and chol (p < 0.05) exhibited significant racial/ethnic disparities. When surveying poverty, Mexican American (p < 0.001), multi-racial (p < 0.01), NH Black and other Hispanic (p < 0.05) exhibited increased rates when compared to NH White participants. There were also clear racial/ethnic disparities between FI report and plasma nutritional status with significant deficient and inadequate statuses seen in the following micronutrients B, C, D (p < 0.001), E(p < 0.01), Na, and Ca (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Significant racial/ethnic disparities were found in FI, poverty, nutritional status, and inflammatory indicators of inflammation. FI and plasma nutritional status of many micronutrients showed incongruences suggesting FI assessment may not capture individuals with nutritional and inflammatory risk contributing to increased cancer risk.

Funding Sources: Data collected in NHANES surveys include funding from the CDC and NCHS.