266810 Assessing the impact of professional football games on the relationship between neighborhood alcohol outlet density and violent crime

Monday, October 29, 2012

Jessica Duell, MPH , Epidemiolgy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Dara Mendez, MPH, PhD , Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Ravi K. Sharma, PhD , Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburg, PA
Joyce D'Antonio, PhD , Department of Psychology in Education, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Chung-Yu Chen, MS , Epidemiolgy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Anthony Fabio, MPH, PhD , Graduate School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Background: It is unknown what impact large scale sporting events, which may influence both alcohol consumption and criminal behavior, have on the relationship between alcohol outlet density (AOD) and violent crime. We analyzed five years (2005-2009) of data to determine the impact that games played by Pittsburgh's professional football team had on violence in Pittsburgh city neighborhoods and assess whether this relationship varied by AOD. Methods: Rates of violent crime (including homicides, robberies, and aggravated assaults) were calculated at the neighborhood level for all Sundays with and without games from 2005-2009 based on data provided by the Pittsburgh Police. Drinking establishments and retail liquor stores were geocoded with ArcGIS using address data from InfoUSA, and the density per square mile was calculated for each neighborhood. Using Poisson regression, adjusted for measures of neighborhood disadvantage, we discovered an interaction between alcohol outlet density and football games. Neighborhoods were subsequently stratified into those with and without drinking or retail alcohol establishments and analyzed separately. Results: Neighborhoods in the low density group experienced a drop in violent crime on game days vs. non-game days (68.19 vs. 73.53 per 1000 Sundays, respectively; p=0.001). The high density neighborhoods had a slight increase in violent crime on game days, but this difference was not significant. Conclusions: Our results suggest that violence decreases on game days in neighborhoods without alcohol establishments but not in neighborhoods with alcohol establishments. Additional studies are needed to clarify the relationships between AOD, violent crime, and professional sporting events.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe how professional football games modify the relationship between alcohol outlet density and violent crime at the neighborhood level.

Keywords: Alcohol, Violence

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the project coordinator of a large, CDC-funded study examining the impact of large scale economic development on violent crime in Pittsburgh, and I am the administrator of the Center for Injury Research and Community Action at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health. Among my interests is the use of GIS technology for crime mapping and geospatial analysis of public health data.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.