Multilevel Associations of Neighborhood Poverty, Crime, and Satisfaction With Blood Pressure in African-American Adults.
BACKGROUND
African-American adults experience the highest rates of elevated blood pressure (BP), and this disparity may be linked to socioeconomic and neighborhood-related disadvantage. Based on a bioecological stress-buffering framework, relations of poverty and neighborhood environmental perceptions with BP were assessed using multilevel regression in at-risk African-American adults.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study used baseline data that were collected in 2008 as part of the Positive Action for Today's Health (PATH) trial (N = 409), a community-based intervention to increase walking in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. BP and perceived neighborhood crime and satisfaction were investigated as individual-level indicators of health and neighborhood environment. Census block groups (N = 22) served as geographic proxies for neighborhoods, and poverty was obtained using 2010 U.S. Census data, to characterize the neighborhood-level socioeconomic environment.


RESULTS
There were no individual-level direct associations. Significant cross-product interactions demonstrated that with higher perceived crime, high satisfaction was associated with lower systolic (γ = 3.34) and diastolic (γ = -1.37) BP, but low satisfaction was associated with higher systolic (γ = 15.12) and diastolic (γ = 7.57) BP. Neighborhood-level poverty was associated with diastolic (γ = 11.48, SE = 4.08, P = 0.008) and systolic BP (γ = 12.79, SE = 6.33, P = 0.052). Variance in BP across block groups was low (intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.002-0.014) and there were no significant random effects.


CONCLUSIONS
Results supported hypotheses, with greater neighborhood satisfaction linked to lower systolic and diastolic BP when perceived crime was high. Neighborhood poverty was also linked to higher systolic and diastolic BP. Prevention efforts should further investigate whether attending to issues of poverty and related neighborhood perceptions reduces high BP in at-risk African-American communities.
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA. coulon@mailbox.sc.edu.
Sandra M
SM
Coulon
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Dawn K
DK
Wilson
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Kassandra A
KA
Alia
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
M Lee
ML
Van Horn
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D003415:Crime / Q000208:ethnology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011203:Poverty / Q000208:ethnology*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
African-American; blood pressure; hypertension; neighborhood; poverty.