Racial disparities in neighborhood social support among women who experienced fetal or infant loss in Los Angeles County (LAC): Results from the 2007-2009 Los Angeles Health Overview of a Pregnancy Event (LA HOPE) Project

Background: A healthy social environment helps create positive health outcomes. We aim to investigate racial disparities in levels of neighborhood social support among mothers who experienced a fetal/infant loss in LAC.

Methods: The LA HOPE project is an ongoing, population-based survey that uses stratified random sampling to survey women in LAC, 7-9 months after they have experienced a fetal/infant loss. Respondents were asked five questions for neighborhood cohesiveness and interaction indicators, and ‘how safe from crime they considered their neighborhood to be' for a safety indicator. We used combined three-year data and sampling weights to represent all mothers who experienced fetal/infant loss in LAC from 2007-2009.

Results: There were 938 respondents to the survey. Among African American mothers who experienced a fetal/infant loss, 25.5% reported that they lived in a cohesive neighborhood during pregnancy, 40.3% reported that they lived in an interactive neighborhood during pregnancy, and 72.5% reported that they lived in a safe neighborhood during pregnancy. Hispanic mothers, however, felt that their neighborhoods were more cohesive (32.3%), interactive (48.9%), and safer (77.6%) than African Americans during pregnancy. White mothers reported that their neighborhoods were more cohesive (36.6%), interactive (52.4%), and safer (88.5%) still during pregnancy.

Conclusions: Although we observed the greatest disparities among African American mothers, all mothers who experienced a fetal/infant loss reported relatively poor cohesiveness, interaction, and safety. Since neighborhood disparities reflect a multitude of social determinants for fetal/infant mortality, it is important that the neighborhood be used as an access point for planning, policy, and intervention.