Assessment of County-Level Factors that Contribute to Environmental Injustice and Health Disparities

The objective of this research is to examine the contribution of ecologic features of the built and social environments to environmental injustice, population health and environmental health disparities. Using a new ecological framework, we seek to understand the role that environmental conditions play in driving the health of human ecological systems, population health and health disparities in the United States.

Social and environmental conditions act as constraints that shape how new conditions emerge as ecologic salutogens (factors that support health) or ecologic pathogens (factors that create negative health such as quality of life impacts and health disparities). We built a national database of ecologic salutogens and pathogens at the county level for 1990 to 2006. This dataset contains information on ecologic salutogens (i.e., health-promoting factors) such as grocery stores, parks, green space, medical facilities, social service organizations; ecologic pathogens (i.e., health-negating factors) such as fast food restaurants, liquor stores, urban blight, unhealthy transportation networks, hazardous air pollution emissions, toxic waste sites, health variables including life expectancy, infant mortality, percent low birthweight, crime-related mortality, injury mortality, cancer mortality, and compositional data (segregation, race/ethnicity, and SES).

We have employed Geographic Information Systems (GIS), regression analysis, and other analytical methods to assess the relationship between ecologic salutogens and pathogens and population health indicators across counties with varying levels of segregation, racial/ethnic populations, and SES. We will present results from these analyses and discuss the implications of this work for urban planning and public health to address environmental health disparities.