Anjum Hajat Investigates the Relationship Between Neighborhood-Level Segregation and Cardiometabolic Risk
Posted: 10/18/2018 (CSDE Research)
Racial residential segregation has been linked to adverse health outcomes, but prior studies have not examined the effect of neighborhood-level racial segregation on cardiometabolic risk (CMR), as well as whether associations differ by race/ethnicity. CSDE Affiliate Anjum Hajat, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at UW, examines this association in the recently co-authored paper “Neighborhood segregation and cardiometabolic risk: The multiethnic study of atherosclerosis”. Using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis to estimate associations of baseline neighborhood segregation with a composite measure of cardiometabolic risk, following up over 12 years with 5015 participants, and using linear mixed effects models to estimate race-stratified associations of own-group segregation, they concluded that associations of own-group racial residential segregation with cardiometabolic risk varied by race/ethnicity. After accounting for socioeconomic status, living in a more segregated neighborhood was associated with greater risk only among black participants.