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VIOLENT CRIME EXPOSURE CLASSIFICATION AND ADVERSE BIRTH OUTCOMES: A GEOGRAPHICALLY-DEFINED COHORT STUDY
Citation:
MESSER, L. C., J. S. KAUFMAN, N. DOLE, A. HERRING, AND B. LARAIA. VIOLENT CRIME EXPOSURE CLASSIFICATION AND ADVERSE BIRTH OUTCOMES: A GEOGRAPHICALLY-DEFINED COHORT STUDY. International Journal of Health Geographics. BioMed Central Ltd, London, Uk, (May):5-22, (2006).
Impact/Purpose:
To explore the relevance of four spatial violent crime exposures: two proximal violent crime categorizations (count of violent crime within a one-half mile radius of residence and distance from residence to nearest violent crime) and two area-level crime categorizations (count of violent crimes within a block group and block group rate of violent crimes) for adverse birth events
Description:
Background
Area-level socioeconomic disparities have long been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Crime is an important element of the neighborhood environment inadequately investigated in the public health literature. Using geocoded linked birth, crime and census data in multilevel models, this paper explored the relevance of four spatial violent crime exposures: two proximal violent crime categorizations (count of violent crime within a one-half mile radius of residence and distance from residence to nearest violent crime) and two area-level crime categorizations (count of violent crimes within a block group and block group rate of violent crimes) for adverse birth events among women in Raleigh NC in 1999-2001.
Results
In black and white non-Hispanic race-stratified models, crime characterized as a proximal exposure was not able to distinguish between women experiencing adverse and women experiencing normal birth outcomes. Violent crime characterized as a neighborhood attribute was positively associated with preterm birth and low birth weight among non-Hispanic white and black women. No statistically significant interaction between area-deprivation and violent crime category was observed.
Conclusions
Crime is variably categorized in the literature, with little rationale provided for crime type or categorization employed. This research represents the first time multiple crime categorizations have been directly compared in association with health outcomes. Finding an effect of area-level violent crime suggests crime may best be characterized as a neighborhood attribute with important implication for adverse birth outcomes.
Although the research described in this article has been supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through Cooperative Training Agreement 829471 to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, it has not been subjected to Agency review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.