TY - JOUR
T1 - Is it who you are or where you live? Residential segregation and racial gaps in childhood asthma
AU - Alexander, Diane
AU - Currie, Janet
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/9
Y1 - 2017/9
N2 - Higher asthma rates are one of the more obvious ways that health inequalities between African American and other children are manifested beginning in early childhood. In 2010, black asthma rates were double non-black rates. Some but not all of this difference can be explained by factors such as a higher incidence of low birth weight (LBW) among blacks; however, even conditional on LBW, blacks have a higher incidence of asthma than others. Using a unique data set based on the health records of all children born in New Jersey between 2006 and 2010, we show that when we split the data by whether or not children live in a “black” zip code, this racial difference in the incidence of asthma among LBW children entirely disappears. All LBW children in these zip codes, regardless of race, have a higher incidence of asthma. Our results point to the importance of residential segregation and neighborhoods in explaining persistent racial health disparities.
AB - Higher asthma rates are one of the more obvious ways that health inequalities between African American and other children are manifested beginning in early childhood. In 2010, black asthma rates were double non-black rates. Some but not all of this difference can be explained by factors such as a higher incidence of low birth weight (LBW) among blacks; however, even conditional on LBW, blacks have a higher incidence of asthma than others. Using a unique data set based on the health records of all children born in New Jersey between 2006 and 2010, we show that when we split the data by whether or not children live in a “black” zip code, this racial difference in the incidence of asthma among LBW children entirely disappears. All LBW children in these zip codes, regardless of race, have a higher incidence of asthma. Our results point to the importance of residential segregation and neighborhoods in explaining persistent racial health disparities.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.07.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.07.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 28802746
AN - SCOPUS:85027238887
SN - 0167-6296
VL - 55
SP - 186
EP - 200
JO - Journal of Health Economics
JF - Journal of Health Economics
ER -