Anthony Fabio ^1*, Erin Sauber-Schatz ¹, Kamil E. Barbour ¹, Wei Li ²

¹ University of Pittsburgh, Center for Injury Research and Control
² Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: fabioa{at}upmc.edu.

	Abstract

Objectives. We investigated whether within-county racial segregation was associated with increased odds of violent injury beyond individual risk.

Methods. In a cross-sectional study, data on 75310 patients admitted with an injury to Pennsylvania hospitals from 1997 to 1999 were analyzed to determine the association between county-level racial segregation and violent injury. We used multilevel analysis to adjust for individual- and county-level factors. Principal components analysis allowed us to separate the effect of segregation from other county-level variables.

Results. After adjustment, greater segregation was associated with increased odds of violent injury among Whites (odds ratio [OR]=1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.11, 1.30) and non-Whites (OR=1.45; 95% CI=1.28, 1.64). The association was stronger for non-Whites.

Conclusions. Our results suggested that living in a county with high levels of racial segregation was associated with increased odds of violence not explained by an individual’s own risk. These findings represent an important step in understanding the nature of observed links between race and violence. Future work should develop prevention strategies that simultaneously target community and individual risks.

Key Words: Community Health, Epidemiology, Injury/Emergency Care/Violence, Race/Ethnicity, Social Science, Statistics/Evaluation/Research