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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2019 Jun 14;28(9):1409–1416. doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-19-0021

Table 1.

Categorical alternatives for tested measures of census tract-level rurality.

Categories of RUCA-based measures Categories of Census-based measures
Four categories – Categorization A:

  • Urban area commuting focused (codes 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, 8.1, and 10.1)

  • Large rural city or town focused (codes 4.0, 4.2, 5.0, 5.2, 6.0, and 6.1)

  • Small rural town focused (codes 7.0, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 8.0, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2)

  • Isolated small rural town focused (codes 10.0, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6)

 Four categories:

  • 100% urban

  • ≥50% but <100% urban

  • >0% but <50% urban

  • 100% rural
Three categories:

  • 100% urban

  • Mixed urban and rural

  • 100% rural

Two categories:

  • ≥50% urban

  • <50% urban

Two categories – Categorization C:

  • Urban area commuting focused (codes 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, 8.1, and 10.1)

  • Not urban area commuting focused (all other codes)

Note. The specialized SEER 18 cancer incidence database includes census tract-level rurality using (1) four categories of the Census-based variable and (2) two categories of the RUCA-based variable. RUCA=Rural Urban Commuting Areas.