Racial/ethnic neighborhood concentration and self-reported health in New York City.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship between racial/ethnic neighborhood concentration and self-reported health before and after adjustment of individual- and neighborhood-level characteristics and to determine whether this association varies by race/ethnicity and perception of neighborhood.


METHODS
The data are derived from the 1999 and 2002 New York City Social Indicator Survey, a cross-sectional survey. Logistic regression was used to assess the strength of the association between racial/ethnic neighborhood concentration and self-reported health before and after controlling for other covariates.


METHODS
The survey was conducted in New York City in 1999 and 2002.


METHODS
A final sample of 2,845 individuals who self-identified as White, Black, Hispanic, or Asian was linked by zip code to the 2000 US Census.


METHODS
Self-reported health was used as a dichotomous variable, good health status (including responses of excellent, very good, pretty good, or good) and poor health status (including the responses fair or poor).


RESULTS
Overall, 21.8% of respondents rated their health as poor, and those who live in neighborhoods with a high concentration of Blacks reported poorer health (27.2%) than those who live in neighborhoods with a low concentration of Blacks (17.3%, P<.001). Our findings suggest that individuals living in the most concentrated neighborhoods were almost two times more likely (odds ratio 1.77, 95% confidence interval 1.12-2.79) to perceive their health as poor compared to their counterparts living in less concentrated neighborhoods.


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates that poor self-reported health varies with patterns of concentration of Blacks in a neighborhood, after adjusting for individual- and neighborhood-level characteristics and perception of neighborhood. The results underscore the need for elucidating the pathways by which racial/ethnic neighborhood concentration affects health.
White
Kellee
K
Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Borrell
Luisa N
LN
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012938:Social Perception; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data