Racial Impact of Hypertension on Colorectal Cancer Screening in Central Illinois, United States.

Introduction Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common types of cancer in the United States. We evaluated the association between hypertension and CRC screening in the American population in Central Illinois. We performed the analysis by investigating the association between hypertension and CRC screening in the American population in Central Illinois, specifically African Americans, to detect disparities. Methods Using electronic medical records from an Illinois healthcare system, we analyzed patients aged 45-75 years between January 2014 and December 2023. The data reviewed included factors such as race, age, gender, education, and hypertension. Race categories were White, African American, and others including Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Samoans, and unclassified races. Exclusions were patients outside the age limit or those diagnosed with CRC without screening. We recorded frequencies and percentages for categorical variables and statistical measures for numeric ones. The Pearson chi-squared test evaluated the association between race and CRC screening. Data analysis was performed in R at a 5% significance level. Results Among screened patients, 2,264 (75.4%) African American, 14,446 (52.1%) White, and 650 (48.4%) others had hypertension. Of those testing positive for CRC, 14 (73