RESUMO
The Great Migration was a movement of roughly eight million Black Southerners relocating to the North and West from 1910 to 1980. Despite being one of the most significant mass internal migrations during the twentieth century, little is known about the health outcomes resulting from migration and whether migrators' destination choices were potential mechanisms. This study measured the association between destination county disadvantage and odds of low birth weight during the last decade of the Great Migration. We used the US Census from 1970 as well as the birth records of first-time Black mothers who migrated from the South collected through the National Center of Health Statistics from 1973 to 1980 (n = 154,145). We examined three measures of area-based opportunity: Black male high school graduation rate, Black poverty rate, and racialized economic residential segregation. We used multilevel logistic regression, where mothers were nested within US counties, to quantify the relationship between county disadvantage and low birth weight. After adjusting for individual risk and protective factors for infant health, there was no relationship between county opportunity measures and low birth weight among migrators. Although high socioeconomic opportunity is typically associated with protection of low birth weight, we did not see these outcomes in this study. These results may support that persistent racial discrimination encountered in the North inhibited infant health even as migrators experienced higher economic opportunity relative to the South.
Assuntos
Negro ou Afro-Americano , Recém-Nascido de Baixo Peso , Características de Residência , Feminino , Humanos , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , Masculino , Mães , Migração HumanaRESUMO
Adverse birth outcomes put children at increased risk of poor future health. They also put families under sudden socioeconomic and psychological strain, which has poorly understood consequences. We tested whether infants experiencing an adverse birth outcome-low birthweight or prematurity, as well as lengthy hospital stays-were more likely to be evicted in early childhood, through age 5 years. We analyzed 5,655 observations contributed by 2,115 participants in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study-a national, randomly sampled cohort of infants born in large US cities between 1998 and 2000-living in rental housing at baseline. We fitted proportional hazards models using piecewise logistic regression, controlling for an array of confounders and applying inverse probability of selection weights. Having been born low birthweight or preterm was associated with a 1.74-fold increase in children's hazard of eviction (95% confidence interval: 1.02, 2.95), and lengthy neonatal hospital stays were independently associated with a relative hazard of 2.50 (95% confidence interval: 1.15, 5.44) compared with uncomplicated births. Given recent findings that unstable housing during pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes, our results suggest eviction and health may be cyclical and co-constitutive. Children experiencing adverse birth outcomes are vulnerable to eviction and require additional supports.
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Disparidades nos Níveis de Saúde , Habitação/estatística & dados numéricos , Recém-Nascido de Baixo Peso , Resultado da Gravidez/epidemiologia , Nascimento Prematuro/epidemiologia , Pré-Escolar , Feminino , Humanos , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , Tempo de Internação/estatística & dados numéricos , Modelos Logísticos , Masculino , Gravidez , Modelos de Riscos Proporcionais , Estados Unidos/epidemiologiaRESUMO
Objectives. To examine how physical health symptoms developed and resolved in response to Hurricane Katrina.Methods. We used data from a 2003 to 2018 study of young, low-income mothers who were living in New Orleans, Louisiana, when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 (n = 276). We fit logistic regressions to model the odds of first reporting or "developing" headaches or migraines, back problems, and digestive problems, and of experiencing remission or "recovery" from previously reported symptoms, across surveys.Results. The prevalence of each symptom increased after Hurricane Katrina, but the odds of developing symptoms shortly before versus after the storm were comparable. The number of traumatic experiences endured during Hurricane Katrina increased the odds of developing back and digestive problems just after the hurricane. Headaches or migraines and back problems that developed shortly after Hurricane Katrina were more likely to resolve than those that developed just before the storm.Conclusions. While traumatic experiences endured in disasters such as Hurricane Katrina appear to prompt the development of new physical symptoms, disaster-induced symptoms may be less likely to persist or become chronic than those emerging for other reasons.
Assuntos
Tempestades Ciclônicas/estatística & dados numéricos , Nível de Saúde , Pobreza/estatística & dados numéricos , Trauma Psicológico/epidemiologia , Adolescente , Adulto , Feminino , Humanos , Modelos Logísticos , Louisiana/epidemiologia , Mães , Desastres Naturais , Nova Orleans/epidemiologia , Prevalência , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Prior research has provided robust evidence that exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) during a disaster is predictive of adverse postdisaster mental health outcomes, including posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and nonspecific psychological distress (PD). However, few studies have explored the role of exposure to other PTEs over the life-course in shaping postdisaster mental health. Based on the broader literature on trauma exposure and mental health, we hypothesized a path analytic model linking predisaster PTEs to long-term postdisaster PTSS and PD via predisaster PD, short-term postdisaster symptoms, and disaster-related and postdisaster PTEs. We tested this model using data from the Resilience in Survivors of Katrina study, a longitudinal study of low-income, primarily non-Hispanic Black mothers exposed to Hurricane Katrina and assessed before the disaster and at time points 1, 4, and 12 years thereafter. The models evidenced a good fit with the data, RMSEA < .01-.04, CFIs > .99. In addition, 44.1%-67.4% of the effect of predisaster PTEs on long-term postdisaster symptoms was indirect. Descriptive differences were observed across models that included PTSS versus PD, as well as models that included all pre- and postdisaster PTEs versus only those that involved assaultive violence. The results suggest the importance of incorporating disaster preparedness in clinical work with trauma survivors and the value in attending to other lifetime PTEs when working in postdisaster contexts.
Assuntos
Tempestades Ciclônicas , Angústia Psicológica , Trauma Psicológico/psicologia , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos/psicologia , Adulto , Negro ou Afro-Americano/psicologia , Feminino , Humanos , Estudos Longitudinais , Masculino , Modelos Psicológicos , Mães/psicologia , Pobreza/psicologia , Trauma Psicológico/epidemiologia , Resiliência Psicológica , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos/epidemiologia , Inquéritos e Questionários , Sobreviventes/psicologiaRESUMO
Recent systematic reviews link foreclosure to worse health at both the individual and population levels. In this issue of the Journal, Downing et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2017;185(6):429-435) add to what is known about foreclosure and health by examining annual measures of glycemic control in relation to local foreclosure activity. They provided evidence that between 2007 and 2010, glycemic control was not associated with rates of completed foreclosure among a continuously insured managed-care population of persons with type 2 diabetes living in 9 California counties. In this commentary, I consider 5 possible interpretations of the null results: 1) foreclosures do not affect health in general, 2) glycated hemoglobin is insensitive to local foreclosure activity, 3) the presence of real estate owned foreclosures (rather than the competed foreclosure rate) affects health, 4) an integrated health-care delivery system buffers patients from the effects of the foreclosure crisis, and 5) community conditions and responses to the foreclosure crisis buffer patients from the effects of the foreclosure crisis. I close by arguing that research on the contextual effects of foreclosure on health should continue despite the ongoing recovery of the housing market.
Assuntos
Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 2 , Fatores Socioeconômicos , California , Hemoglobinas Glicadas , Habitação , HumanosRESUMO
In contrast to a large literature investigating neighborhood effects on health, few studies have examined health as a determinant of neighborhood attainment. However, the sorting of individuals into neighborhoods by health status is a substantively important process for multiple policy sectors. We use prospectively collected data on 569 poor, predominantly African American Hurricane Katrina survivors to examine the extent to which health problems predicted subsequent neighborhood poverty. Our outcome of interest was participants' 2009-2010 census tract poverty rate. Participants were coded as having a health problem at baseline (2003-2004) if they self-reported a diagnosis of asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, or any other physical health problems not listed, or complained of back pain, migraines, or digestive problems at baseline. Although health problems were not associated with neighborhood poverty at baseline, those with baseline health problems ended up living in higher poverty areas by 2009-2010. Differences persisted after adjustment for personal characteristics, baseline neighborhood poverty, hurricane exposure, and residence in the New Orleans metropolitan area, with baseline health problems predicting a 3.4 percentage point higher neighborhood poverty rate (95% confidence interval: 1.41, 5.47). Results suggest that better health was protective against later neighborhood deprivation in a highly mobile, socially vulnerable population. Researchers should consider reciprocal associations between health and neighborhoods when estimating and interpreting neighborhood effects on health. Understanding whether and how poor health impedes poverty deconcentration efforts may help inform programs and policies designed to help low-income families move to--and stay in--higher opportunity neighborhoods.
Assuntos
Tempestades Ciclônicas , Desastres , Nível de Saúde , Áreas de Pobreza , Características de Residência , Sobreviventes , Adolescente , Adulto , Negro ou Afro-Americano/psicologia , Comportamento de Escolha , Desastres/estatística & dados numéricos , Feminino , Disparidades nos Níveis de Saúde , Hispânico ou Latino/psicologia , Humanos , Cobertura do Seguro , Masculino , Modelos Teóricos , Nova Orleans , Pais/psicologia , Estudos Prospectivos , Características de Residência/estatística & dados numéricos , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Sobreviventes/psicologia , Sobreviventes/estatística & dados numéricos , População Urbana , Populações Vulneráveis , População Branca/psicologia , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing was a randomized experiment that moved very low-income US families from high-poverty neighborhoods to low-poverty neighborhoods starting in the early 1990s. We modeled report of a child's baseline health problem as a predictor of neighborhood outcomes for households randomly assigned to move from high- to low-poverty neighborhoods. We explored associations between baseline health problems and odds of moving with the program upon randomization (1994-1997), neighborhood poverty rate at follow-up (2002), and total time spent in affluent neighborhoods and duration-weighted poverty. Among 1,550 households randomized to low-poverty neighborhoods, a smaller share of households reporting baseline child health problems (P = 0.004) took up the intervention (38%) than those not reporting a health problem (50%). In weighted and covariate-adjusted models, a child health problem predicted nearly 40% lower odds of complying with the experimental condition (odds ratio = 0.62, 95% confidence interval: 0.42, 0.91; P = 0.015). Among compliers, a baseline child health problem predicted 2.5 percentage points' higher neighborhood poverty at take-up (95% confidence interval: 0.90, 4.07; P = 0.002). We conclude that child health problems in a household prior to randomization predicted lower likelihood of using the program voucher to move to a low-poverty neighborhood within the experiment's low-poverty treatment arm and predicted selection into poorer neighborhoods among experimental compliers. Child morbidity may constrain families attempting to improve their life circumstances.
Assuntos
Saúde da Família/estatística & dados numéricos , Programas Governamentais/estatística & dados numéricos , Habitação/estatística & dados numéricos , Pobreza/estatística & dados numéricos , Características de Residência/estatística & dados numéricos , Adulto , Criança , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Pobreza/psicologia , Áreas de Pobreza , Estados UnidosRESUMO
Individuals from different backgrounds, social groups, and countries enjoy different levels of health. This article defines and distinguishes between unavoidable health inequalities and unjust and preventable health inequities. We describe the dimensions along which health inequalities are commonly examined, including across the global population, between countries or states, and within geographies, by socially relevant groupings such as race/ethnicity, gender, education, caste, income, occupation, and more. Different theories attempt to explain group-level differences in health, including psychosocial, material deprivation, health behavior, environmental, and selection explanations. Concepts of relative versus absolute; dose response versus threshold; composition versus context; place versus space; the life course perspective on health; causal pathways to health; conditional health effects; and group-level versus individual differences are vital in understanding health inequalities. We close by reflecting on what conditions make health inequalities unjust, and to consider the merits of policies that prioritize the elimination of health disparities versus those that focus on raising the overall standard of health in a population.
Assuntos
Fatores Socioeconômicos , Comportamentos Relacionados com a Saúde , Humanos , Renda , Grupos Raciais , Classe SocialRESUMO
BACKGROUND: Cesarean delivery is the most common inpatient surgery in the United States, where 1.3 million cesarean sections occur annually, and rates vary widely by hospital. Identifying sources of variation in cesarean use is crucial to improving the consistency and quality of obstetric care. We used hospital discharge records to examine the extent to which variability in the likelihood of cesarean section across US hospitals was attributable to individual women's clinical diagnoses. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using data from the 2009 and 2010 Nationwide Inpatient Sample from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project--a 20% sample of US hospitals--we analyzed data for 1,475,457 births in 1,373 hospitals. We fitted multilevel logistic regression models (patients nested in hospitals). The outcome was cesarean (versus vaginal) delivery. Covariates included diagnosis of diabetes in pregnancy, hypertension in pregnancy, hemorrhage during pregnancy or placental complications, fetal distress, and fetal disproportion or obstructed labor; maternal age, race/ethnicity, and insurance status; and hospital size and location/teaching status. The cesarean section prevalence was 22.0% (95% confidence interval 22.0% to 22.1%) among women with no prior cesareans. In unadjusted models, the between-hospital variation in the individual risk of primary cesarean section was 0.14 (95% credible interval 0.12 to 0.15). The difference in the probability of having a cesarean delivery between hospitals was 25 percentage points. Hospital variability did not decrease after adjusting for patient diagnoses, socio-demographics, and hospital characteristics (0.16 [95% credible interval 0.14 to 0.18]). A limitation is that these data, while nationally representative, did not contain information on parity or gestational age. CONCLUSIONS: Variability across hospitals in the individual risk of cesarean section is not decreased by accounting for differences in maternal diagnoses. These findings highlight the need for more comprehensive or linked data including parity and gestational age as well as examination of other factors-such as hospital policies, practices, and culture--in determining cesarean section use. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.
Assuntos
Cesárea/estatística & dados numéricos , Bases de Dados Factuais , Complicações do Trabalho de Parto/diagnóstico , Parto Obstétrico/estatística & dados numéricos , Feminino , Hospitais/estatística & dados numéricos , Humanos , Complicações do Trabalho de Parto/epidemiologia , Complicações do Trabalho de Parto/cirurgia , Gravidez , Fatores de RiscoRESUMO
The relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and asthma in the wake of natural disasters is poorly understood. Using pre- and postdisaster data (N = 405) from the Resilience in Survivors of Katrina (RISK) project, we examined associations between PTSD symptoms, measured by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and self-reported postdisaster asthma attacks. A 1-point increase in the IES-R avoidance score, which corresponded to one standard deviation change in this sample, was associated with double the odds of reporting an asthma attack or episode since the hurricane, 95% CI Revise spacing among characters: [1.22, 4.16]. Association with hyperarousal and intrusion symptoms was null. Further research using objective measures of asthma morbidity is needed; nevertheless, these findings may help inform postdisaster health services delivery and predisaster mitigation planning.
Assuntos
Asma/psicologia , Tempestades Ciclônicas , Desastres , Mães/psicologia , Resiliência Psicológica , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos/psicologia , Sobreviventes/psicologia , Adolescente , Adulto , Negro ou Afro-Americano/psicologia , Negro ou Afro-Americano/estatística & dados numéricos , Asma/epidemiologia , Aprendizagem da Esquiva , Comorbidade , Feminino , Humanos , Modelos Logísticos , Mães/estatística & dados numéricos , Nova Orleans/epidemiologia , Razão de Chances , Pobreza , Prevalência , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos/epidemiologia , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos/fisiopatologia , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Housing is tied to neighborhoods. Therefore, to understand how housing affects health and health equity, the role of neighborhood environments must be considered. This article is a critical review of the relationship between neighborhoods and health. We discuss inequality among US neighborhoods and the roots of that inequality. We then explore the ways in which neighborhood environments may shape health, review the evidence about these effects, and discuss policy responses. Many studies document an association between neighborhoods and physical and mental health, and a few studies suggest that some of these relationships are causal. Thus, the evidence suggests that interventions at the neighborhood scale can potentially help advance health equity. Further research on the long-term impacts of neighborhoods on health and more rigorous studies of the impact of particular neighborhood interventions are needed. To advance health equity, policy makers also need to better understand the institutional arrangements and social policies that have created neighborhood inequality and pursue innovative approaches to changing them.
Assuntos
Equidade em Saúde , Humanos , Características de Residência , Habitação , Saúde Mental , Política PúblicaRESUMO
Evidence suggests that being evicted harms health. Largely ignored in the existing literature is the possibility that evictions exert community-level health effects, affecting evicted individuals' social networks and shaping broader community conditions. In this narrative review, we summarize evidence and lay out a theoretical model for eviction as a community health exposure, mediated through four paths: 1) shifting ecologies of infectious disease and health behaviors, 2) disruption of neighborhood social cohesion, 3) strain on social networks, and 4) increasing salience of eviction risk. We describe methods for parsing eviction's individual and contextual effects and discuss implications for causal inference. We conclude by addressing eviction's potentially multilevel consequences for policy advocacy and cost-benefit analyses.
Assuntos
Habitação , Saúde Pública , Humanos , Características de Residência , Comportamentos Relacionados com a SaúdeRESUMO
Fees and fines collected through courts and law enforcement can comprise a considerable proportion of revenue for local governments. Law enforcement, as agents of revenue generation, change policing behavior to increase revenue, at times targeting Black and brown neighborhoods to bolster municipal budgets. This structural racism in revenue generation has not yet been assessed as an exposure for adverse health. Using the 2012 Census of Governments, and 2011-2015 vital statistics from the National Center of Health Statistics, we examine the relationship between countyaverage fees and fines as a percent of total own-source revenue and county-level characteristics, and risk of preterm birth and low birthweight across the United States. Mothers residing in counties with the greatest reliance on fees and fines had 1.08 (95% CI: 1.03-1.12) times the odds of preterm birth and 1.07 (95% CI: 1.02-1.11) times the odds of low birthweight than mothers residing in counties with the least reliance on fees and fines, controlling for individual- and county-level covariates. The addition of countylevel racial composition, and the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE), reduced these associations yet remained statistically significant. Future studies should continue to examine how racist, exploitative revenue generation through police and court activities influences the health of residents.
Assuntos
Fatores Econômicos , Nascimento Prematuro , Grupos Raciais , Determinantes Sociais da Saúde , Feminino , Humanos , Recém-Nascido , Peso ao Nascer , Recém-Nascido de Baixo Peso , Estados UnidosRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The Great Migration was a mass movement in the United States during the twentieth century of roughly eight million Black Southerners to the Northeast, Midwest, and West. Despite its significance, little is known about the health outcomes associated with this internal migration. This study assessed the relationship between migration and low birth weight among mothers born in the South between 1950 and 1969. METHODS: We used approximately 1.4 million birth records of Black infants maintained by the US National Center for Health Statistics. To tease out the roles of the healthy migrant bias and of destination contexts, we compared two migration groups to Southern non-migrators: (1) migrators moving to the North and (2) migrators moving within the South. Non-migrants were matched to migrants using coarsened exact matching. We estimated the relationship between migration status and low birth weight stratified by birth year cohorts using logistic regression models. RESULTS: There was positive selection in education and marriage among migrants moving out of the South and within the South. Results showed lower odds of low birth weight in both migration groups compared to Southern non-migrants. The odds ratios of low birth weight were similar in both comparisons. CONCLUSION: We found evidence consistent with a healthy migrant bias in infant health among mothers during the last decades of the Great Migration. Despite better economic opportunity, migrating to the North may not have offered additional protection for infant birth weight outcomes.
Assuntos
Peso ao Nascer , Recém-Nascido de Baixo Peso , Mães , Feminino , Humanos , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , Gravidez , Estados Unidos/epidemiologia , Negro ou Afro-Americano , Migração HumanaRESUMO
Across the United States, residents of lower income neighborhoods evince poorer health, on average, than residents of more affluent areas. Studies aiming to explain this pattern have focused largely on the effects of neighborhood characteristics on residents' health, often overlooking the possibility that the reverse causal process-that a person's health impacts where they live, or "health selection into neighborhoods"-also plays a role. We investigated processes of health selection using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a longitudinal survey of U.S. households. Using ordinary least squares linear regression, we estimated the effect of householders' self-rated health on their neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES, the Census tract-level family poverty rate) in 2013, adjusting for neighborhood SES and health in 2001 as well as sociodemographic characteristics and residential mobility. Poorer health was associated with residence in higher poverty neighborhoods overall. Stratified models indicated that while health selection was observed across both race/ethnicity and class boundaries, the relationship between poor health and neighborhood poverty was stronger among non-Hispanic Black respondents, those with low income, and respondents who either moved moderate distances or did not move at all during the study period. We conclude with a call for future work exploring the mechanisms leading those in worse health to reside in higher poverty neighborhoods, and for public health policies that seek not only to improve health supporting conditions in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, but that also support the economic and social needs of residents struggling with health problems.
Assuntos
Características de Residência , Classe Social , Adulto , Humanos , Renda , Pobreza , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Estados Unidos , Populações VulneráveisRESUMO
Eviction upends children's lives and exacerbates deprivation; it remains largely unexamined as a determinant of cognitive development. We assess whether children evicted in infancy, early childhood, and middle childhood exhibit lower scores on four cognitive assessments (measuring executive function, mathematical reasoning, written language skills, and vocabulary skills) at age 9. Using linear regression and selection weights, we analyze longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a national, urban birth cohort (N = 1724 for eviction during infancy, 2126 for early childhood, 1979 for middle childhood). These stages of childhood follow the timing of FFCWS' data collection waves, with "infancy" data collected in the first year of life, "early childhood" in the third and fifth years of life, and "middle childhood" in the ninth year. In adjusted models, children evicted in middle childhood exhibited scores 0.20-0.43 SDs below similar children who were not (depending on the assessment; p-values = 0.004-0.055), the equivalent of as much as a full year of schooling. Point estimates of the association between eviction in infancy and 3/4 cognitive skills at age 9 were also large, but imprecisely estimated (between -0.25 and -0.28 SDs; p-values = 0.053-0.101), while point estimates for eviction in early childhood were near zero and statistically insignificant. Our large estimates for middle childhood and infancy, compared to earlier residential mobility studies, indicate downwardly mobile moves may exhibit more severe associations with future cognition. Estimates suggest preventing eviction may be a powerful, cost-effective way to safeguard children's cognitive development.
Assuntos
Coorte de Nascimento , Cognição , Criança , Desenvolvimento Infantil , Pré-Escolar , Humanos , Dinâmica PopulacionalRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic growth (PTG) has been documented in the aftermath of a range of traumatic events, including bereavement, physical assault, and rape. However, only a handful of studies have examined whether levels of total PTG, as well as the 5 domains of PTG (Appreciation of Life, New Possibilities, Relating to Others, Personal Strength, and Spiritual Change), vary by the type of potentially traumatic event. The current study examined variation in total PTG and PTG domains, as well as posttraumatic stress (PTS), by event type using data from a large epidemiological study. METHOD: Participants were from a substudy of the Nurses' Health Study 2, an epidemiologic study of female nurses in the United States (N = 1,574). RESULTS: Controlling for demographic covariates, we found that rape was consistently associated with lower PTG, both total PTG and all five PTG domains, relative to other event types. Other findings were limited to specific PTG domains; for example, intimate partner violence (IPV) was associated with higher Personal Strength and New Possibilities. In contrast, rape and IPV were associated with higher PTS, and the serious illness or injury of someone close with lower PTS, relative to other event types. CONCLUSION: These results add to the growing literature exploring variation in PTG by event type and suggest that different events could yield markedly different patterns of PTG domains and PTS. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Assuntos
Luto , Enfermeiras e Enfermeiros , Crescimento Psicológico Pós-Traumático , Transtornos de Estresse Pós-Traumáticos , Adaptação Psicológica , Feminino , HumanosRESUMO
Processes of neighborhood change are important determinants of health. One salient dimension of the experience of neighborhood changes is a person's evolving sense of empowerment over the changes around them, such as development of new housing or shifts in economic opportunity. Community residents collaborating on a Participatory Action Research study developed the novel construct "ownership of change" to capture this psychosocial process, and hypothesized that it may help explain the relationship between neighborhood change and health. In this paper, we describe our participatory process for developing a way to measure ownership of change, explore the construct's validity, test the hypothesis that it is associated with health, and analyze qualitative data to understand the process through which one's sense of ownership of change is produced. We argue that the construct is useful for studying the role of neighborhood changes in shaping health, and that building ownership over neighborhood change must be a key dimension of urban planning and policy for health equity.
Assuntos
Equidade em Saúde , Propriedade , Habitação , Humanos , Características de ResidênciaRESUMO
IMPORTANCE: Housing insecurity induced by evictions may increase the risk of contracting COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association of lifting state-level eviction moratoria, which increased housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective cohort study included individuals with commercial insurance or Medicare Advantage who lived in a state that issued an eviction moratorium and were diagnosed with COVID-19 as well as a control group comprising an equal number of randomly selected individuals in these states who were not diagnosed with COVID-19. Data were collected from OptumLabs Data Warehouse, a database of deidentified administrative claims. The study used a difference-in-differences analysis among states that implemented an eviction moratorium between March 13, 2020, and September 4, 2020. EXPOSURES: Time since state-level eviction moratoria were lifted. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome measure was a binary variable indicating whether an individual was diagnosed with COVID-19 for the first time in a given week with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision code U07.1. The study analyzed changes in COVID-19 diagnosis before vs after a state lifted its moratorium compared with changes in states that did not lift it. For sensitivity analyses, models were reestimated on a 2% random sample of all individuals in the claims database during this period in these states. RESULTS: The cohort consisted of 509â¯694 individuals (254â¯847 [50.0%] diagnosed with COVID-19; mean [SD] age, 47.0 [23.6] years; 239â¯056 [53.3%] men). During the study period, 43 states and the District of Columbia implemented an eviction moratorium and 7 did not. Among the states that implemented a moratorium, 26 (59.1%) lifted their moratorium before the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued their national moratorium, while 18 (40.1%) maintained theirs. In a Cox difference-in-differences regression model, individuals living in a state that lifted its eviction moratorium experienced higher hazards of a COVID-19 diagnosis beginning 5 weeks after the moratorium was lifted (hazard ratio [HR], 1.39; 95% CI, 1.11-1.76; P = .004), reaching an HR of 1.83 (95% CI, 1.36-2.46; P < .001) 12 weeks after. Hazards increased in magnitude among individuals with preexisting comorbidities and those living in nonaffluent and rent-burdened areas. Individuals with a Charlson Comorbidity Index score of 3 or greater had an HR of 2.37 (95% CI, 1.67-3.36; P < .001) at the end of the study period. Those living in nonaffluent areas had an HR of 2.14 (95% CI, 1.51-3.05; P < .001), while those living in areas with a high rent burden had an HR of 2.31 (95% CI, 1.64-3.26; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The findings of this difference-in-differences analysis suggest that eviction-led housing insecurity may have exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic.
Assuntos
COVID-19/etiologia , Nível de Saúde , Habitação , Pandemias , Pobreza , Política Pública , Classe Social , Adulto , Idoso , Comorbidade , Feminino , Pessoas Mal Alojadas , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Estudos Retrospectivos , Fatores de Risco , SARS-CoV-2 , Estados UnidosRESUMO
In a recent paper, Albarrán et al. (2020) use a well-known quasi-randomization strategy to study the impact of education on health outcomes. Concretely, they use the fact that changes in compulsory education laws--usually extending the age of release from the school system--result in exogenous differences in educational attainment between people who may only be separated by a few months of age. They deploy an Instrumental Variable (IV) strategy to compare the outcomes of people forced to stay longer in school to those of individuals who were allowed to drop out earlier. Their empirical strategy does not find a statistically significant effect of education on health outcomes. The paper is timely, well written, and well executed, and deserves careful attention. However, we hope readers consider four caveats--some already raised by the authors--before concluding from the results that education does not matter for health. To help readers interpret this solid research piece, we call attention to: 1) previous research on the links between education and health; 2) the selection of countries in the paper in the presence of heterogenous treatment effects; 3) biases generated by misclassification and measurement errors; and 4) the interpretation of local average treatment effects (LATE) arising from the policy interventions used as instrumental variables.