ArticlePloS one2017
A Neighborhood-Wide Association Study (NWAS): Example of prostate cancer aggressiveness.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic review of neighborhood socioeconomic indices studied across the cancer control continuum.Cancer medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Design and methodology challenges of environment-wide association studies: A systematic review.Environmental research · 2020Pooled it
- A Geographically Sensitive Neighborhood Exposome-Wide Association Study for Breast Cancer Survival.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Transportation-related factors, cancer screening, and stage at diagnosis: A scoping review.PloS one · 2026Article
- Does inclusion of neighborhood variables improve clinical risk prediction for advanced prostate cancer in Black and White men?Urologic oncology · 2025Article
- Article
- The Automatic Context Measurement Tool (ACMT) to Compile Participant-Specific Built and Social Environment Measures for Health Research: Development and Usability Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Neighborhood Disadvantage and Prostate Tumor Aggressiveness among African American and European American Men.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2024Article
- An exploratory analysis of the impact of area-level exposome on geographic disparities in aggressive prostate cancer.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Associations between neighborhood characteristics and child well-being before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A repeated cross-sectional study in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program.Environmental research · 2024Article
- Neighborhood Disadvantage and Prostate Tumor RNA Expression of Stress-Related Genes.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- The Hallmarks of Precancer.Cancer discovery · 2024Article
- Racial disparities in cancer care, an eyeopener for developing better global cancer management strategies.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2023Review
- Neighbourhood social deprivation and risk of prostate cancer.British journal of cancer · 2023Article
- Health-Related and Psychosocial Factors Associated with Prostate Cancer Stage at Diagnosis among Males Participating in Alberta's Tomorrow Project.Prostate cancer · 2023Article
- Methodological Challenges in Spatial and Contextual Exposome-Health Studies.Critical reviews in environmental science and technology · 2023Article
- Investigating the association of environmental exposures and all-cause mortality in the UK Biobank using sparse principal component analysis.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Neighborhood deprivation and risk of mortality among men with prostate cancer: Findings from a long-term follow-up study.The Prostate · 2022Article
- Contributions of Social Factors to Disparities in Prostate Cancer Risk Profiles among Black Men and Non-Hispanic White Men with Prostate Cancer in California.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2022Article
- Machine Learning Approaches for Measuring Neighborhood Environments in Epidemiologic Studies.Current epidemiology reports · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeCancer results from complex interactions of multiple variables at the biologic, individual, and social levels. Compared to other levels, social effects that occur geospatially in neighborhoods are not as well-studied, and empiric methods to assess these effects are limited. We propose a novel Neighborhood-Wide Association Study(NWAS), analogous to genome-wide association studies(GWAS), that utilizes high-dimensional computing approaches from biology to comprehensively and empirically identify neighborhood factors associated with disease.
methodsPennsylvania Cancer Registry data were linked to U.S. Census data. In a successively more stringent multiphase approach, we evaluated the association between neighborhood (n = 14,663 census variables) and prostate cancer aggressiveness(PCA) with n = 6,416 aggressive (Stage≥3/Gleason grade≥7 cases) vs. n = 70,670 non-aggressive (Stage<3/Gleason grade<7) cases in White men. Analyses accounted for age, year of diagnosis, spatial correlation, and multiple-testing. We used generalized estimating equations in Phase 1 and Bayesian mixed effects models in Phase 2 to calculate odds ratios(OR) and confidence/credible intervals(CI). In Phase 3, principal components analysis grouped correlated variables.
resultsWe identified 17 new neighborhood variables associated with PCA. These variables represented income, housing, employment, immigration, access to care, and social support. The top hits or most significant variables related to transportation (OR = 1.05;CI = 1.001-1.09) and poverty (OR = 1.07;CI = 1.01-1.12).
conclusionsThis study introduces the application of high-dimensional, computational methods to large-scale, publically-available geospatial data. Although NWAS requires further testing, it is hypothesis-generating and addresses gaps in geospatial analysis related to empiric assessment. Further, NWAS could have broad implications for many diseases and future precision medicine studies focused on multilevel risk factors of disease.
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