Residential Segregation and Health: Empirical evidence

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Residential Segregation and Health Empirical
evidence

• Jennifer García
• Doctoral Roundtable
• March 5, 2007

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OVERVIEW

• Background
• Segregation and health
• Future directions

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BACKGROUND
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Racial Residential Segregation

• Segregation refers to the physical separation of
  the races in residential contexts.
• The spatial distances between groups reflect the
  social distances between them.
• -Duncan and Duncan (1955)

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Segregation in Los Angeles

• Los Angeles-Long Beach Metropolitan Area, 2000
  Census Data
• Dissimilarity Index
• Non-Hispanic Black 67.4
• Hispanic 63.1
• Asian/Pacific Islander  47.7

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SEGREGATION AND HEALTH
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SEGREGATION AND HEALTH

• Residential segregation is critical to
  understanding the existence and persistence of
  health disparities in the United States.
• Differential residential location comes with
  differential exposure to health risks. Gee
  Payne-Sturges (2006)

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SEGREGATION AND HEALTH

• Move beyond documenting associations and develop
  conceptual frameworks
• Epidemiology of segregation
• (Acevedo-Garcia, 2000)
• In other words, how does residential segregation
  affect health?

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SEGREGATION AND HEALTH

• Ways in which segregation can adversely affect
  health
• Poor neighborhood quality
• Health behaviors
• Medical care access
• Social context

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Poor Neighborhood Quality

• Lack of economic investment in minority
  neighborhoods
• Poor urban infrastructure and physical built
  environment
• Substandard housing conditions
• Dangerous environmental exposures

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Katrina
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Katrina

• These inequities in health outcomes are not
  accidental, random occurrences experienced by
  people who happened to be in the wrong place at
  the wrong time. Rather, they result directly from
  longstanding discriminatory public and private
  policies, such as segregation, continued
  government neglect and failure to invest in poor
  communities
• NACCHO (2005)

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Health Behaviors

• Availability of bike lanes, parks, recreational
  facilities
• Availability of grocery stores vs. liquor stores,
  fast food restaurants
• Disproportionate number of tobacco and alcohol
  ads in poor, minority communities.

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Dollar Menu
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Medical Care Access

• Pharmacies in non-white neighborhoods in New York
  were less likely to have pain medication in stock
  (Morrison et al., 2000).
• Lack of medical care can exacerbate existing
  conditions, and facilitate spread of infectious
  diseases (Acevedo-Garcia, 2000).

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King/Drew Medical Center
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Social Context

• Higher rates of poverty and crime
• Mental health outcomes among adolescents
  (Aneshensel Sucoff, 1996)
• Lack of social support systems in poor
  neighborhoods

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Collective Efficacy?
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CONCLUSION
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FUTURE DIRECTIONS

• Minor exam
• Literature review
• Empirical paper
• Mapping project

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jennifergarcia_at_ucla.edu