Hispanic Segregation and Poor Health: It's Not Just Black and White
- 24 May 2017
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in American Journal of Epidemiology
- Vol. 186 (8), 990-999
- https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwx172
Abstract
Despite the importance of understanding the fundamental determinants of Hispanic health, few studies have investigated how metropolitan segregation shapes the health of the fastest-growing population in the United States. Using 2006–2013 data from the National Health Interview Survey, we 1) examined the relationship between Hispanic metropolitan segregation and respondent-rated health for US-born and foreign-born Hispanics and 2) assessed whether neighborhood poverty mediated this relationship. Results indicated that segregation has a consistent, detrimental effect on the health of US-born Hispanics, comparable to findings for blacks and black-white segregation. In contrast, segregation was salutary (though not always significant) for foreign-born Hispanics. We also found that neighborhood poverty mediates some, but not all, of the associations between segregation and poor health. Our finding of divergent associations between health and segregation by nativity points to the wide range of experiences within the diverse Hispanic population and suggests that socioeconomic status and structural factors, such as residential segregation, come into play in determining Hispanic health for the US-born in a way that does not occur among the foreign-born.Keywords
This publication has 60 references indexed in Scilit:
- Metropolitan-Level Racial Residential Segregation and Black-White Disparities in HypertensionAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 2011
- Protective Neighborhoods: Neighborhood Proportion of Mexican Americans and Depressive Symptoms in Very Old Mexican AmericansJournal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2011
- Is neighborhood racial/ethnic composition associated with depressive symptoms? The multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosisSocial Science & Medicine, 2010
- Another Mexican birthweight paradox? The role of residential enclaves and neighborhood poverty in the birthweight of Mexican-origin infantsSocial Science & Medicine, 2009
- Disparities in Self-Reported Hypertension in Hispanic Subgroups, Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White Adults: The National Health Interview SurveyAnnals of Epidemiology, 2008
- Does place explain racial health disparities? Quantifying the contribution of residential context to the Black/white health gap in the United StatesSocial Science & Medicine, 2008
- Neighborhood context and ethnicity differences in body mass index: A multilevel analysis using the NHANES III survey (1988–1994)Economics & Human Biology, 2007
- Social cohesion, social support, and health among Latinos in the United StatesSocial Science & Medicine, 2006
- Residential Segregation and Latino, Black and White Mortality in New York CityJournal of Urban Health, 2006
- Mortality prediction with a single general self-rated health questionJournal of General Internal Medicine, 2006