Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 90, Issue 2, Pages 230-236Publisher
AMER PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOC INC
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.90.2.230
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [R21 HD042980] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Objectives. We examined the relationships between neighborhood conditions and gonorrhea. Methods. We assessed 55 block soups by rating housing and street conditions. We mapped all cases of gonorrhea between 1994 and 1996 and calculated aggregated case rates by block group. We obtained public school inspection reports and assigned findings to the block groups served by the neighborhood schools. A broken windows index measured housing quality, abandoned cars, graffiti: trash and public school deterioration. Using data from the 1990 census and 1995 updates, we determined the association between broken windows, demographic characteristics, and gonorrhea rates. Results. The broken windows index explained more of the variance in gonorrhea rates than did a poverty index measuring: income, unemployment, and low education. in high-poverty neighborhoods, block groups with high broken windows scores had significantly higher gonorrhea rates than block groups with low broken windows scores(46.6 per 1000 vs 25.8 per 1000; P<.001). Conclusions. The robust association of deteriorated physical conditions of local neighborhoods with gonorrhea rates, independent of poverty, merits an intervention trial to test whether the environment has a, causal role in influencing high-risk sexual behaviors.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available