title: Race, Ethnicity, and Exposure to Alcohol Outlets.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Prior studies suggest that Black and Hispanic minority populations are exposed to greater concentrations of alcohol outlets, potentially contributing to health disparities between these populations and the White majority. We tested the alternative hypothesis that urban economic systems cause outlets to concentrate in low-income areas and, controlling for these effects, lower demand among minority populations leads to fewer outlets.
  
  
  METHODS
  Market potential for alcohol sales, a surrogate for demand, was estimated from survey and census data across census block groups for 50 California cities. Hierarchical Bayesian conditional autoregressive Poisson models then estimated relationships between observed geographic distributions of outlets and the market potential for alcohol, income, population size, and racial and ethnic composition.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Market potentials were significantly smaller among lower income Black, Hispanic, and Asian populations. Block groups with greater market potential and lower income had greater concentrations of outlets. When we controlled for these effects, the racial and ethnic group composition of block groups was mostly unrelated to outlet concentrations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health disparities related to exposure to alcohol outlets are primarily driven by distributions of income and population density across neighborhoods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Oakland, California.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.affiliation: Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Oakland, California.
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Gruenewald
authors.affiliation: Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Oakland, California.
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Ponicki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000208:ethnology; D000368:Aged; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000191:economics*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty / Q000191:economics; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000208:ethnology*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D058012:Small Business / Q000191:economics*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult