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Evidence Base Home » Social Cohesion and Social Integration » Social exclusion segregation has negative effects on health

Articles in Social exclusion (segregation) has negative effects on health.

  • Segregated neighborhoods have lower-quality public services, and those who live in majority-black suburbs report lower satisfaction with those services compared to those living in consolidated metropolitan areas.

    DeHoog R, Lowery D, Lyons WE. 1991. Metropolitan Fragmentation and Suburban Ghettos: Some empirical observations on institutional racism. Journal of Urban Affairs 479-490.

  • Chronic stress due to racism and the social inequality it engenders may be underlying social determinants of persistent racial disparities in health, including infant mortality, preterm delivery, and low birth weight.

    Dominguez TP. 2008. Race, racism, and racial disparities in adverse birth outcomes. Clinical Obstetrics And Gynecology. 51(2): 360-370.

  • Among non-Hispanic blacks, higher racial isolation is positively associated with both a higher body mass index (BMI) and greater odds of being overweight: an increase of one standard deviation in the isolation index is associated with a 0.423 unit increase in BMI and a 14% increase in the odds of being overweight.

    Chang V. 2006. Racial residential segregation and weight status among US adults, Social Science and Medicine 63:1289–1303.

  • Those who live in racially segregated neighborhoods are economically deprived and more likely to be exposed to environmental hazards, compared to those who do not.

    Smith CL. 2009. Economic deprivation and racial segregation: Comparing Superfund sites in Portland, Oregon and Detroit, Michigan. Social Science Research 38(3): 681-692.

  • African-American men living in areas with the highest segregation had almost three times the mortality risk as those living in areas of low segregation.

    Jackson SA, Anderson RT. 2000. The relation of residential segregation to all-cause mortality: A study in black and white. American Journal of Public Health 90(4):615-617.

  • Segregated schools have lower average test scores, fewer students in advanced placement courses, more limited curricula, less access to academic counseling, fewer connections with colleges and employers, more deteriorated buildings, higher levels of teen pregnancy, and higher dropout rates.

    Williams DR, Collins C. 2001. Racial residential segregation: A fundamental cause of racial disparities in health. Public Health Report 116:404-416.

  • A study showed that reducing income-related residential segregation improved household safety, reduced exposure to crime, and decreased neighborhood social disorder.

    Anderson LM, St Charles J, Fullilove MT. Scrimshaw SC, Fielding JE, Normand J. 2003. Providing affordable family housing and reducing residential segregation by income: A systematic review. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 24(3S):47-67.

  • In Harlem, NY, African American men had excess mortality rate of 1,296 per 100,000 above the mortality rate of whites, excess death rate in African American men in Pitt County, NC (rural) of 504. Some of this had to do with access to health care practitioners. Some had to do with social support.

    Geronimus AT, Colen CG, Shochet T, Ingber LB, James SA. 2006. Urban-rural differences in excess mortality among high-poverty populations: Evidence from the Harlem Household Survey and the Pitt County, North Carolina Study of African American Health. J Health Care Poor Underserved. Aug 17(3):532-558.

  • The significance of segregation to health is shown by research demonstrating that life expectancy in US cities vary from neighborhoods by as much as 20 years. For example, urban African American males live, on the average, 21 years shorter than Asian American females.

    Murray CJ, Kulkarni SC, Michaud C, Tomijima N, Bulzacchelli MT, Landiorio TJ, Ezzati M. 2006. Eight Americas: Investigating mortality disparities across races, counties, and race-counties in the United States. PLoS Med Sept 3(9):e260.

  • Where one lives determines the school one goes to, and high-minority schools have the least experienced teachers, the most uncertified teachers, the lowest salaried teachers, and the highest rates of teacher turnover.

    New York State Education Department. 1997. The State of Learning: A Report to the Governor and the Legislature on the Educational Status of the States Schools. Albany, NY.

  • A higher level of racial isolation was associated with negative health outcomes including lower birthweight, higher rates of prematurity and higher rates of fetal growth restriction

    Bell J, Zimmerman F, Almgren G, Mayer J, Huebner C. 2006. Birth outcomes among urban African American women: a multilevel analysis of the role of racial residential segregation, Social Science and Medicine 63:3030–3045
    Osypuk TL, Acevedo-Garcia D. 2008. Are racial disparities in preterm birth larger in hypersegregated areas? American Journal Of Epidemiology 167(11): 1295-1304.