Segregation and Health

Paper Summary:

This paper proposes a study to examine some of the literature developed on the interaction of segregation, discrimination and health. Its hypothesis is that segregation creates a life-long pattern of lowered resistance to both physical and mental health problems, even if the person has a positive attitude toward life and seems accepting of social conditions. It attempts to show that individuals who are most bruised by segregation in terms of self-esteem, are even more vulnerable, as are several categories of African-Americans, including rural blacks early in the century and African-Americans in more segregated locales.

Outline
Introduction
Literature Review
Methods
Results
Discussion

From the Paper:

"There are a number of studies in the literature looking at residential segregation in terms of health factors. For example, Jackson et al. (2000) reported on the relationship of residential segregation to all-cause mortality. Her research group used data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study for analysis, concluding that minority residential segregation may indeed increase mortality risk for both black and white residents. They noted that after adjusting for family income, age-adjusted mortality risk increased with increasing minority residential segregation among blacks aged 25 to 44 years and non-blacks aged 45 to 64 years. They also noted, that for most age/race/gender groups, the highest and lowest mortality risks occurred in the highest and lowest categories of residential segregation. In other words, increased mortality rates were associated with increased segregation, while decreased mortality rates were associated with decreased segregation. It is important to remember that this is after adjustment for family income, which is one factor that might immediately come to mind as an explanation for these figures."

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