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Purpose: Outdoor light at night (LAN) can result in circadian disruption and hormone dysregulation and is a suspected risk factor for some cancers. Our study is the first to evaluate the association between LAN and risk of endometrial cancer, a malignancy with known relationship to circulating estrogen levels. Methods: We linked enrollment addresses (1996) for 97,677 postmenopausal women in the prospective NIH-AARP cohort to satellite imagery of nighttime radiance to estimate LAN exposure. Multivariable Cox models estimated hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for LAN quintiles and incident endometrial cancer overall (1,669 cases) and endometrioid adenocarcinomas (991 cases) through follow-up (2011). We tested for interaction with established endometrial cancer risk factors. Results: We observed no association for endometrial cancer overall (HRQ1vsQ5 0.92; 95% CI 0.78–1.08; p trend = 0.67) or endometrioid adenocarcinoma (HRQ1vsQ5 1.01; 95% CI 0.82–1.24; p trend = 0.36). Although body mass index and menopause hormone therapy were both associated with risk, there was no evidence of interaction with LAN (p interactions = 0.52 and 0.50, respectively). Conclusion: Our study did not find an association between outdoor LAN and endometrial cancer risk, but was limited by the inability to account for individual-level exposure determinants. Future studies should consider approaches to improve characterization of personal exposures to light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young women are key stakeholders in efforts to increase human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination uptake. Community health workers who engage with young women can provide valuable information to inform intervention strategies to increase vaccine uptake. We aimed to determine HPV vaccination and sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates among urban women and to identify barriers to vaccination. A trained health educator collaborated with community-based organizations to host health education and STI testing sessions for women in Chicago, Illinois. Forty-nine sessions took place at 15 sites over two years. Each attendee met with the educator about sexual health and HPV vaccination, and completed a health survey. We used contingency tables and logistic regression to determine factors associated with HPV vaccination using the cross-sectional survey data. Of the 292 women who answered questions about history of HPV vaccination, the average age was 17 (SD 2.3) years old, 63% (n = 184) were African American, and 33% (n = 98) Hispanic. Only 13.4% (n = 39) previously received the vaccine, and 6.2% (n = 18) received two to three doses. After adjustment, prior HIV testing was associated with 4.6 times higher odds (95% CI 1.71, 12.53, p = 0.002) of being vaccinated compared to women without prior testing. Our study provides evidence that young African American and Hispanic women living in Chicago may have low HPV vaccination rates. Women who received prior STI testing (i.e., sought healthcare) were more likely to be vaccinated relative to their peers who did not, indicating that racial/ethnic or socioeconomic disparities may inhibit utilization of preventative services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]