title: Segregation, poverty, and empowerment: health consequences for African Americans.
abstract: Cities in the United States have undergone major social transitions during the past two decades. Three notable factors in these shifts have been the development of a black political elite sustained rates of black poverty, and intensified racial segregation. Indications of the effect of these social forces on black-white differentials in health status have begun to surface in the research literature. This article reports analyses of data from all U.S. cities with a population of 50,000, at least 10 percent of which is black. These results indicate substantial geographic variation in black-white infant mortality rates. Racial residential segregation, black political empowerment, and black and white poverty are the characteristics that distinguish cities that have a high degree of disparity in black-white infant mortality from cities that do not.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Laveist
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006291:Health Policy; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011057:Politics; D011203:Poverty; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011287:Prejudice; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data