Abstract 3614: Examining social networks within public housing to better direct cancer screening interventions for Pacific Islanders
Authors: Mark L. Willingham, Kevin Cassel, Ian Pagano, Grazyna Badowski
Journal: Cancer Research (2025)

Background: Social networks and social interactions play an important role in an individual’s health and cancer screening behaviors. We examined the relationship between types of social interactions to better understand where to direct efforts for cancer screening interventions for Pacific Islanders (PIs) in Hawaiʻi (Native Hawaiians, Chuukese, and Marshallese adults) in public housing communities where PIs are often overrepresented. Methods: We utilized a mixed methods research design, examining an existing survey dataset of 1,010 PIs and 16 semi-structured interviews from the same sites where we surveyed individuals, to determine the role of social networks on health outcomes within PIs living in public housing. As a measure of social networks, we formed a social network index from three survey items, including, the number of individuals a person knows personally, interacts with, and discusses personal matters with utilizing a range of 0-9 for each item. Findings from the 16 semi-structured interviews regarding social networks used by individuals for information sharing and with whom participants discussed personal health matters provided qualitative data used for examining the social network index. We applied means testing between the groups (515 Native Hawaiians, 305 Chuukese, 180 and Marshallese) to determine if there were differences in the groups’ social networks, and grounded theory to extract the major themes from the narratives. Results: Interviewees discussed the role of small social circles consisting of their families and households for information and health resource sharing. Within the dataset, Chuukese had significantly smaller personal networks (x̅= 4.05, p=.003); however, they had significantly more individuals (x̅= 4.90, p=.04) with whom they would discuss personal matters, more than Native Hawaiian and Marshallese adults. Marshallese indicated significantly more individuals (x̅= 5.10, p=.04) that they have interacted with over the past two weeks. Conclusions: Chuukese adults have small personal networks; however, their small social circles used to discuss personal and important matters is larger than the other groups, Marshallese and Native Hawaiian. This thus indicates more meaningful social networks for this group. Marshallese adults may interact with more people; however, they did not indicate more close relationships than Chuukese to discuss personal matters. These findings indicate social networks and the type and frequency of social interactions have meaningful roles in health and cancer information sharing for PIs. Future interventions must recognize the frequency and types of meaningful social networks within PIs to potentially change cancer screening behaviors by increasing resource sharing within the most valuable networks. Citation Format: Mark L. Willingham, Kevin Cassel, Ian Pagano, Grazyna Badowski. Examining social networks within public housing to better direct cancer screening interventions for Pacific Islanders [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 3614.