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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Molly M. De Marco, MPH, CHES, Department of Public Health, Oregon State University, 254 Waldo Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, 541-231-3292, mollydemarco@comcast.net and Allison C. De Marco, MSW, School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, 120 Haviland Hall #7400, Berkeley, CA 94720.

Current research demonstrates an association between neighborhood characteristics, social problems, including poverty, racial isolation, and crime, and numerous outcomes, such as child well-being and mental health (e.g. Aneshensel & Sucoff, 1996; Bellair, 1997; Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993). Poorer and less organized communities are generally at a disadvantage for health care services (Ellen, Mijanovich, & Dillman, 2001; Huie, 2001). Although there has been an upsurge in neighborhood effects research, little has been done to assess their impact on nutrition, health, and welfare program utilization. The purpose of this study is to examine neighborhood affects on social service utilization. This study utilizes data from the 2000/2001 Wave of the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study (Cherlin, Angel, Burton, Chase-Lansdale, Moffitt et al., 2001), a study of low-income residents in Boston, San Antonio, and Chicago (n=1712) (Mince, Ruiz, McKean, & Peterson, 2003). Multilevel modeling was used to assess the affects of neighborhood characteristics, including residential mobility, housing problems, and perceptions of neighborhood problems, on TANF, WIC, FSP, Medicaid, SSI, and public housing utilization. Neighborhood-level characteristics were found to account for 28% of the variance in program utilization. Specifically, three neighborhood-level predictors, neighborhood rating, neighborhood problems, and informal social control improved the fit of the model. The study findings provide evidence for the importance of neighborhood-level characteristics as predictors of social service utilization. As number of perceived neighborhood problems increased, the level of social service utilization decreased. Implications for public health practice will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Identify the neighborhood and individual factors that are associated with health and social service utilization.
• 2. Recognize characteristics related to disadvantaged neighborhoods.
• 3. Articulate the importance of access to and utilization of needed health and social services, with a particular attention to low-income, urban neighborhoods.

Keywords: Access and Services, Community

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation