Black-white residential segregation and physical activity.
This multilevel study explores the potential relationship between Black-White residential segregation and physical activity. It combines data on physical activity from the 2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a national telephone survey of adults overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with a measure of racial segregation. Using hierarchical linear modeling, it controlled for age, sex, Black race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, income, and amount of urban sprawl. For each one-point increase in the Black-White Dissimilarity Index (on a 0-100 scale), the modeled risk of being physically inactive increased by .7% (odds ratio [OR] = 1.007, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.003, 1.011). The relationship between segregation and physical activity was similar for Blacks and Whites, though not statistically significant for the Black-only analysis. This finding may imply that the pathway between segregation and ill health includes physical inactivity.
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Talbot 2E, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118, USA. rptlopez@bu.edu
Russ
R
Lopez
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011287:Prejudice; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D014481:United States; D044465:White People