Community Health Needs Assessment

Community Health Needs Assessment

Understanding cancer burden, awareness, and needs in Colorado

To better understand how cancer affects communities across our state, and how prepared local health leaders are to address cancer-related needs, we conducted a comprehensive Community Health Needs Assessment across all 64 Colorado counties. This included 47 rural counties and 17 urban counties, allowing us to examine differences in cancer burden and awareness across geographic regions.

Using data from the Colorado Central Cancer Registry, we developed a Cancer Disparity Index that incorporated cancer incidence, cancer mortality, and late-stage cancer diagnoses. This index helped us identify counties with a disproportionate cancer burden and highlighted where additional support, resources, and outreach may be needed. Through this analysis, we identified 26 counties with higher cancer disparities and compared their cancer rates to those in lower-disparity counties and to regional averages. 

We summarized these findings in easy-to-read visual reports and shared them directly with community health leaders across the state. In addition to distributing the reports, we conducted interviews with local public health officials to assess their awareness of cancer burden in their communities and to better understand the challenges they face in addressing it. Our findings revealed that, overall, awareness of local cancer trends and disparities was limited, especially in higher-burden counties. Many officials reported needing more data, resources, and support related to cancer prevention and control.

 This report provides a deeper look at our assessment findings and outlines the CU Anschutz Cancer Center COE’s long-term strategy to address cancer disparities in Colorado.

 You can learn more about statewide cancer trends by visiting our Exploring Cancer in Colorado (ECCO) data platform.