Mason Susan M, Messer Lynne C, Laraia Barbara A, Mendola Pauline
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 4635, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Health Place. 2009 Mar;15(1):1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2008.01.007. Epub 2008 Feb 12.
Epidemiologic research suggests that racial segregation is associated with poor health among blacks in the United States (US). We used geocoded birth records and US census data to investigate whether neighborhood-level percent black is associated with preterm birth (PTB) for black and white women in two counties in the southern US, whether area-level deprivation modifies this association, and whether the association is influenced by the choice of geographic unit used to approximate a neighborhood. A 20%-point increase in tract-level percent black was found to be associated with increased PTB odds in white (OR=1.09, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.18) and black (OR=1.05, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.11) women. These small associations were similar to those observed in other US regions. Effects were robust to choice of neighborhood proxy and were not modified by area-level deprivation.
流行病学研究表明，种族隔离与美国黑人的健康状况不佳有关。我们使用地理编码的出生记录和美国人口普查数据，调查美国南部两个县黑人与白人女性的社区黑人比例是否与早产（PTB）有关，地区层面的贫困是否会改变这种关联，以及这种关联是否受用于近似社区的地理单元选择的影响。研究发现，普查区层面黑人比例增加20个百分点与白人（OR=1.09，95%CI：1.01，1.18）和黑人（OR=1.05，95%CI：0.99，1.11）女性早产几率增加有关。这些微弱的关联与美国其他地区观察到的情况相似。结果对于社区代理的选择具有稳健性，并且不受地区层面贫困的影响。
