Application of a Novel Method for Assessing Cumulative Risk Burden by County

Jennifer J. Salinas, Manasi Shah, Bassent Abdelbary, Jennifer L. Gay and Ken Sexton
Additional contact information
Jennifer J. Salinas: School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Brownsville Regional Campus, RAHC, UTB 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA
Manasi Shah: School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Brownsville Regional Campus, RAHC, UTB 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA
Bassent Abdelbary: School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Brownsville Regional Campus, RAHC, UTB 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA
Jennifer L. Gay: Health Promotion & Behavior, The University of Georgia, 330 River Road, 329 Ramsey Center, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Ken Sexton: School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Brownsville Regional Campus, RAHC, UTB 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA

IJERPH, 2012, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to apply the Human Security Index (HSI) as a tool to detect social and economic cumulative risk burden at a county-level in the state of Texas. The HSI is an index comprising a network of three sub-components or “fabrics”; the Economic, Environmental, and Social Fabrics. We hypothesized that the HSI will be a useful instrument for identifying and analyzing socioeconomic conditions that contribute to cumulative risk burden in vulnerable counties. We expected to identify statistical associations between cumulative risk burden and (a) ethnic concentration and (b) geographic proximity to the Texas-Mexico border. Findings from this study indicate that the Texas-Mexico border region did not have consistently higher total or individual fabric scores as would be suggested by the high disease burden and low income in this region. While the Economic, Environmental, Social Fabrics (including the Health subfabric) were highly associated with Hispanic ethnic concentration, the overall HSI and the Crime subfabric were not. In addition, the Education, Health and Crime subfabrics were associated with African American racial composition, while Environment, Economic and Social Fabrics were not. Application of the HSI to Texas counties provides a fuller and more nuanced understanding of socioeconomic and environmental conditions, and increases awareness of the role played by environmental, economic, and social factors in observed health disparities by race/ethnicity and geographic region.

Keywords: cumulative risk burden; socioeconomics; race/ethnicity; Texas-Mexico border; Texas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/5/1820/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/5/1820/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:9:y:2012:i:5:p:1820-1835:d:17676

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().