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Neighborhood Concentrated Disadvantage and Adult Mortality: Insights for Racial and Ethnic Differences

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Abstract

While racial and ethnic differences in mortality are pervasive and well documented, less is known about how mortality risk varies by neighborhood socioeconomic status across racial and ethnic identity. We conducted a prospective analysis on a sample of adults living at or below 300% poverty with 8 years of the National Health Interview Survey (N = 159,400) linked to 11,600 deaths to examine the association between neighborhood disadvantage and mortality for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics. Using multilevel logistic regression, we find that the probability of death from any cause for lower-income adults is higher in more-disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared to less-disadvantaged neighborhoods, but only for whites. The adjusted likelihood of death for blacks and foreign-born Hispanics is not associated with neighborhood disadvantage, and the likelihood of death for U.S.-born Hispanics is lower in more-disadvantaged neighborhoods. While future research and policy should focus on improving health-promoting resources in all communities, care should be given to better understanding why race/ethnic groups have differential mortality returns with respect to area-specific socioeconomic conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support and the staff at the Texas Census Research Data Center at Texas A&M. We also thank the staff at the Rocky Mountain Research Data Center and the National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center in Hyattsville, MD for their assistance and support with the restricted use data components of this research. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH, NCHS, or the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-4020, USA

    Justin T. Denney

  2. University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Jarron M. Saint Onge

  3. Department of Public Health, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Jeff A. Dennis

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  1. Justin T. Denney
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  2. Jarron M. Saint Onge
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Correspondence to Justin T. Denney.

Appendix

Appendix

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Table 3 Odds ratios and relative risk ratios (Model 3) of mortality, U.S. adults aged 25 to 65 in households below 300% FPL.
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Denney, J.T., Saint Onge, J.M. & Dennis, J.A. Neighborhood Concentrated Disadvantage and Adult Mortality: Insights for Racial and Ethnic Differences. Popul Res Policy Rev 37, 301–321 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-018-9461-9

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