Abstract B082: Exploring climate change harm perception and associated racial/ethnic gaps in US cancer survivors

Abstract Background: Climate change poses a major threat to people’s health and healthcare systems in the US and worldwide, disproportionately affecting underserved and vulnerable populations including cancer survivors. Despite this, research concerning awareness and perceived impacts of climate change-related health risks remains scarce. This study sought to examine the prevalence of and racial/ethnic differences in climate change harm perceptions among cancer survivors in the US. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) that used two-stage stratified sampling to interview US adults. This analysis was limited to adults aged ≥18 years with a history of cancer. Per HINTS, climate change harm perception was measured by asking participants “how much do you think climate change will harm your health?” based on a 4-point Likert scale: not at all, a little, some, and a lot. We compared weighted proportions and calculated P for trend using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test by race/ethnicity. We performed weighted ordinal logistic regression to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AOR), controlling for sociodemographic factors and general health status. All analyses accounted for complex survey design and weights. Results: The unweighted sample size was 829 (mean age 65.7 years), representing a weighted sample of 22,833,390 cancer survivors in the US. 81.8% were White, 7.1% Hispanic, 5.7% Black, and 5.4% Other. Overall, 22.2% (95% CI: 18.1-26.2%) perceived climate change will harm their health a lot, and 29.1% (95% CI: 24.1-34.0%), 20.2% (95% CI: 15.9-24.5%), and 28.6% (95% CI: 23.0-34.2%) perceived some, a little, and not at all, respectively. The proportions of perceived climate change-related health harm were higher in Black (a lot: 27.6%; some: 33.9%; a little: 23.8%), Hispanic (a lot: 35.9%; some: 27.1%; a little: 14.1%), or Other (a lot: 24.0%; some: 6.2%; a little: 32.5%) cancer survivors than in White survivors (a lot: 20.2%; some: 31.4%; a little: 19.6%) (P for trend=0.0303). In the adjusted model, Black (AOR=1.50, 95% CI: 0.79-2.83) or Hispanic (AOR=1.75, 95% CI: 0.78-3.89) cancer survivors had greater odds of perceiving climate change harms health than White survivors; however, these differences were not statistically significant. Additionally, having a college or graduate degree was associated with greater odds of perceiving health harm of climate change compared to having a high school or less degree (AOR=2.35, 95% CI: 1.20-4.60). Conclusions: In this US population-level survey study, half of the cancer survivors perceived a lot or some climate change-related health harm while more than 1 in 4 perceived climate will not harm their health at all. The degree of climate change harm perception was similar across racial/ethnic groups but varied by education level. Our findings suggest the need to improve health communication and education to raise awareness of climate change-related health risks in the growing population of cancer survivors. Citation Format: Jincong Q. Freeman, Kent Schechter, Armaan Jamal, Xinyi Li, Victoria Umutoni, Long Nguyen, Blake Kelley, Shreyas Kalantri. Exploring climate change harm perception and associated racial/ethnic gaps in US cancer survivors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 18th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities; 2025 Sep 18-21; Baltimore, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2025;34(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B082.