TITLE:
Statistical Assessment of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation Environment in Spatial Epidemiologic Studies
AUTHORS:
Min Lian, James Struthers, Ying Liu
KEYWORDS:
Assessment, Neighborhood, Socioeconomic, Deprivation, Spatial Epidemiology
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Statistics,
Vol.6 No.3,
June
14,
2016
ABSTRACT: Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation has
been associated with health behaviors and outcomes. However, neighborhood
socioeconomic status has been measured inconsistently across studies. It
remains unclear whether appropriate socioeconomic indicators vary over
geographic areas and geographic levels. The aim of this study is to compare the
composite socioeconomic index to six socioeconomic indicators reflecting
different aspects of socioeconomic environment by both geographic areas and
levels. Using 2000 U.S. Census data, we performed a multivariate common factor
analysis to identify significant socioeconomic resources and constructed 12
composite indexes at the county, the census tract, and the block group levels
across the nation and for three states, respectively. We assessed the agreement
between composite indexes and single socioeconomic variables. The component of
the composite index varied across geographic areas. At a specific geographic
region, the component of the composite index was similar at the levels of
census tracts and block groups but different from that at the county level. The
percentage of population below federal poverty line was a significant
contributor to the composite index, regardless of geographic areas and levels.
Compared with non-component socioeconomic indicators, component variables were
more agreeable to the composite index. Based on these findings, we conclude
that a composite index is better as a measure of neighborhood socioeconomic
deprivation than a single indicator, and it should be constructed on an area-
and unit-specific basis to accurately identify and quantify small-area
socioeconomic inequalities over a specific study region.