A Strategy for Addressing Population Health Management.

Abstract

CONTEXT Population health management in the era of the Affordable Care Act focuses on identifying needs of health care service areas for targeted strategies. The United States has a "health disadvantage" compared with peer countries, particularly regarding obesity and women's life expectancy, while having high rates of mammography screening. Emphasizing lifestyle factors is a strategy to reduce one's risk of obesity and heart disease, as well as some breast cancers. OBJECTIVE We explored perceptions of the risk of female population-based breast cancer mortality compared with heart disease mortality; perceived likelihood of developing breast cancer; and recognition of the association between modifiable lifestyle factors and breast cancer risk. DESIGN Cross-sectional online survey. SETTING Service area of one mid-Missouri health care system. PARTICIPANTS Female US residents ages 35 to 49 years who did not have a personal history of any cancer. RESULTS Minority women and women with a college education or less had greater odds of reporting that breast cancer, rather than heart disease, would cause more deaths in women this year. Women who had ever had a mammogram had greater odds of reporting a moderate/high compared with low likelihood of developing breast cancer. Women with less than a college education had greater odds of not knowing of any lifestyle behaviors or reporting only clinical behaviors related to reducing one's risk of breast cancer. CONCLUSIONS The present study illuminates areas of lagging information dissemination that may be used for targeted strategies for population health management in the era of the Affordable Care Act, that of bridging healthy lifestyle strategies for heart health with messages for breast health.