Colorectal Cancer Burden and Access to Federally Qualified Health Centers in California
Figure. Colorectal cancer burden and access to primary health care, California. A vast majority of Californians (96%) live within a 30-minute drive of a federally qualified health center (FQHC). This is true for areas in both the top and bottom quintiles (96% and 93% respectively) based on the percentage of colorectal cancers (CRC) diagnosed at a late stage. There was no meaningful connection found between geographic access to affordable CRC screening services and late-stage diagnosis percentages. This finding suggests that other barriers besides physical distance to affordable CRC screening need to be examined in order to reduce the geographic disparities in late-stage CRC diagnoses.  Background