The prevalence of harmful content on outdoor advertising in Los Angeles: Land use, community characteristics, and the spatial inequality of a public health nuisance

B.C. Lowery and D.C. Sloane

American Journal of Public Health, 2014, vol. 104, issue 4, 658-664

Abstract: Objectives. Our study sought to examine associations between the content of outdoor advertising and neighborhood ethnic/racial and socioeconomic composition to see whether particular communities disproportionately host harmful content. Methods. We constructed a spatial database of photographs taken from June 2012 until December 2012 in 7 identically zoned communities in Los Angeles, California, to compare outdoor advertising area and content. We selected communities to contrast by ethnicity/race, income, education, and youth population. Results. At-risk communities and communities of color hosted more outdoor advertising depicting harmful content than other communities. Among included neighborhoods, harmful content and the proportion of outdoor advertising overall were most prevalent in communities of Asian Americans and Latino Americans. In all communities, harmful content represented at least 24% of outdoor advertising space. Conclusions. This study provides evidence of the potential for land-use decisions to result in spatially inequitable health impacts. Although dictating the placement of outdoor advertising through zoning may seem sensible, such a decision might have the unintended consequence of disadvantaging the well-being of local communities. Neighborhood factors require more contextually nuanced public health and land-use policy.

Keywords: advertizing; ancestry group; article; demography; educational status; ethnic group; human; prevalence; public health; socioeconomics; statistics; United States; vulnerable population, Advertising as Topic; Continental Population Groups; Educational Status; Ethnic Groups; Humans; Los Angeles; Prevalence; Public Health; Residence Characteristics; Socioeconomic Factors; Vulnerable Populations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301694

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2013.301694_9

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301694

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().