scholarly journals Visualizing Variation in Majority-Black Suburbs in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110655
Author(s):  
Kiara Wyndham Douds ◽  
R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy ◽  
Kimberley Johnson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Median Household Income ◽  
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged ◽  
Metropolitan Statistical Areas ◽  
Housing Age

The aim of this visualization is to highlight sociodemographic variation among Black suburbs and spur further research on them. The authors provide a sociodemographic portrait of Black suburbs, defined as those that are more than 50 percent Black, to highlight their prevalence and variety. The 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in 2018 contained 413 Black suburbs, representing 5 percent of all suburbs. The authors examine distributions of Black suburbs on two characteristics, median household income and housing age, to make two points. First, Black suburbs feature substantial sociodemographic variation in terms of both income and housing age. Second, this variation is not primarily a function of suburbs’ Black population share. Contrary to common assumptions, Black suburbs are not all older suburbs populated by the socioeconomically disadvantaged but include newer, middle-class, and affluent places as well.

scholarly journals County-Level Social Distancing and Policy Impact in the United States: A Dynamical Systems Model

10.2196/23902 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. e23902
Author(s):  
Kevin L McKee ◽  
Ian C Crandell ◽  
Alexandra L Hanlon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Differential Equation ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Impact ◽  
County Level ◽  
Median Household Income ◽  
Social Distancing

Background Social distancing and public policy have been crucial for minimizing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. Publicly available, county-level time series data on mobility are derived from individual devices with global positioning systems, providing a variety of indices of social distancing behavior per day. Such indices allow a fine-grained approach to modeling public behavior during the pandemic. Previous studies of social distancing and policy have not accounted for the occurrence of pre-policy social distancing and other dynamics reflected in the long-term trajectories of public mobility data. Objective We propose a differential equation state-space model of county-level social distancing that accounts for distancing behavior leading up to the first official policies, equilibrium dynamics reflected in the long-term trajectories of mobility, and the specific impacts of four kinds of policy. The model is fit to each US county individually, producing a nationwide data set of novel estimated mobility indices. Methods A differential equation model was fit to three indicators of mobility for each of 3054 counties, with T=100 occasions per county of the following: distance traveled, visitations to key sites, and the log number of interpersonal encounters. The indicators were highly correlated and assumed to share common underlying latent trajectory, dynamics, and responses to policy. Maximum likelihood estimation with the Kalman-Bucy filter was used to estimate the model parameters. Bivariate distributional plots and descriptive statistics were used to examine the resulting county-level parameter estimates. The association of chronology with policy impact was also considered. Results Mobility dynamics show moderate correlations with two census covariates: population density (Spearman r ranging from 0.11 to 0.31) and median household income (Spearman r ranging from –0.03 to 0.39). Stay-at-home order effects were negatively correlated with both (r=–0.37 and r=–0.38, respectively), while the effects of the ban on all gatherings were positively correlated with both (r=0.51, r=0.39). Chronological ordering of policies was a moderate to strong determinant of their effect per county (Spearman r ranging from –0.12 to –0.56), with earlier policies accounting for most of the change in mobility, and later policies having little or no additional effect. Conclusions Chronological ordering, population density, and median household income were all associated with policy impact. The stay-at-home order and the ban on gatherings had the largest impacts on mobility on average. The model is implemented in a graphical online app for exploring county-level statistics and running counterfactual simulations. Future studies can incorporate the model-derived indices of social distancing and policy impacts as important social determinants of COVID-19 health outcomes.

A Potential Role of the Widespread Use of Microwave Ovens in the Obesity Epidemic

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kanazawa ◽  
Marie-Therese von Buttlar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dietary Habit ◽  
Median Household Income ◽  
Extreme Obesity ◽  
Obesity Epidemic ◽  
British Cohort Study ◽  
Highly Correlated

Organisms acquire more calories from eating hot food than eating the identical food cold; thus, the widespread use of microwave ovens might have played a small role in the current obesity epidemic, just as the widespread use of refrigerators might have retarded the historic increase in obesity a century ago. Analysis of the British Cohort Study showed that, net of dietary habit, physical activities, genetic predisposition, and other demographic factors, the ownership of a microwave was associated with an increase of .781 in body mass index (BMI) and 2.1 kg in weight (when the ownership of other kitchen appliances was not associated with increased BMI or weight), and it more than doubled the odds of being overweight. In the United States from 1960 to 2015, the adult overweight, obesity, and extreme obesity rates were very highly correlated ( r = .94–.98) with the proportion of households with microwaves, and it was not because both were consequences of increasing wealth. Net of median household income, the proportion of households with microwaves was very strongly ( ds > 1.0) associated with adult overweight, obesity, and extreme obesity rates, while median household income was not at all associated with them. Individual data from the United Kingdom and historical data from the United States highlighted the possible role of the widespread use of microwave ovens in the obesity epidemic.

scholarly journals Mass Deportations Would Impoverish US Families and Create Immense Social Costs

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Warren ◽  
Donald Kerwin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Median Household Income ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Executive Summary ◽  
College Degrees ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Census ◽  
Mixed Status

Executive Summary1 This paper provides a statistical portrait of the US undocumented population, with an emphasis on the social and economic condition of mixed-status households - that is, households that contain a US citizen and an undocumented resident. It is based primarily on data compiled by the Center for Migration Studies (CMS). Major findings include the following: • There were 3.3 million mixed-status households in the United States in 2014. • 6.6 million US-born citizens share 3 million households with undocumented residents (mostly their parents). Of these US-born citizens, 5.7 million are children (under age 18). • 2.9 million undocumented residents were 14 years old or younger when they were brought to the United States. • Three-quarters of a million undocumented residents are self-employed, having created their own jobs and in the process, creating jobs for many others. • A total of 1.3 million, or 13 percent of the undocumented over age 18, have college degrees. • Of those with college degrees, two-thirds, or 855,000, have degrees in four fields: engineering, business, communications, and social sciences. • Six million undocumented residents, or 55 percent of the total, speak English well, very well, or only English. • The unemployment rate for the undocumented was 6.6 percent, the same as the national rate in January 2014.2 • Seventy-three percent had incomes at or above the poverty level. • Sixty-two percent have lived in the United States for 10 years or more. • Their median household income was $41,000, about $12,700 lower than the national figure of $53,700 in 2014 (US Census Bureau 2015). Based on this profile, a massive deportation program can be expected to have the following major consequences: • Removing undocumented residents from mixed-status households would reduce median household income from $41,300 to $22,000, a drop of $19,300, or 47 percent, which would plunge millions of US families into poverty. • If just one-third of the US-born children of undocumented residents remained in the United States following a mass deportation program, which is a very low estimate, the cost of raising those children through their minority would total $118 billion. • The nation's housing market would be jeopardized because a high percentage of the 1.2 million mortgages held by households with undocumented immigrants would be in peril. • Gross domestic product (GDP) would be reduced by 1.4 percent in the first year, and cumulative GDP would be reduced by $4.7 trillion over 10 years. CMS derived its population estimates for 2014 using a series of statistical procedures that involved the analysis of data collected by the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). The privacy of all respondents in the survey is legally mandated, and, for the reasons listed in the Appendix, the identity of undocumented residents cannot be derived from the data. A detailed description of the methodology used to develop the estimates is available at the CMS website.3

Educational Attainment and Suicide Rates in the United States

2005 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest L. Abel ◽  
Michael L. Kruger
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Suicide Rate ◽  
Household Income ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Median Household Income ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
The Relationship

We examined the relationship between educational attainment and suicide rate in the United States for 2001. Suicide rates, adjusted for age, were compared with percentage of college graduates, median household income, and poverty in 50 states in 2001. The correlations of suicide rates with educational attainment and median household income were both negative and statistically significant. Poverty was not significantly related to suicide rates. We concluded that higher education and income were associated with a decrease in suicide rates in 2001. Data from other years require examination for this conclusion to be generalizable.

scholarly journals County-Level Social Distancing and Policy Impact in the United States: A Dynamical Systems Model (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin L McKee ◽  
Ian C Crandell ◽  
Alexandra L Hanlon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Differential Equation ◽  
Population Density ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Impact ◽  
County Level ◽  
Median Household Income ◽  
Social Distancing

BACKGROUND Social distancing and public policy have been crucial for minimizing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. Publicly available, county-level time series data on mobility are derived from individual devices with global positioning systems, providing a variety of indices of social distancing behavior per day. Such indices allow a fine-grained approach to modeling public behavior during the pandemic. Previous studies of social distancing and policy have not accounted for the occurrence of pre-policy social distancing and other dynamics reflected in the long-term trajectories of public mobility data. OBJECTIVE We propose a differential equation state-space model of county-level social distancing that accounts for distancing behavior leading up to the first official policies, equilibrium dynamics reflected in the long-term trajectories of mobility, and the specific impacts of four kinds of policy. The model is fit to each US county individually, producing a nationwide data set of novel estimated mobility indices. METHODS A differential equation model was fit to three indicators of mobility for each of 3054 counties, with T=100 occasions per county of the following: distance traveled, visitations to key sites, and the log number of interpersonal encounters. The indicators were highly correlated and assumed to share common underlying latent trajectory, dynamics, and responses to policy. Maximum likelihood estimation with the Kalman-Bucy filter was used to estimate the model parameters. Bivariate distributional plots and descriptive statistics were used to examine the resulting county-level parameter estimates. The association of chronology with policy impact was also considered. RESULTS Mobility dynamics show moderate correlations with two census covariates: population density (Spearman <i>r</i> ranging from 0.11 to 0.31) and median household income (Spearman <i>r</i> ranging from –0.03 to 0.39). Stay-at-home order effects were negatively correlated with both (<i>r</i>=–0.37 and <i>r</i>=–0.38, respectively), while the effects of the ban on all gatherings were positively correlated with both (<i>r</i>=0.51, <i>r</i>=0.39). Chronological ordering of policies was a moderate to strong determinant of their effect per county (Spearman r ranging from –0.12 to –0.56), with earlier policies accounting for most of the change in mobility, and later policies having little or no additional effect. CONCLUSIONS Chronological ordering, population density, and median household income were all associated with policy impact. The stay-at-home order and the ban on gatherings had the largest impacts on mobility on average. The model is implemented in a graphical online app for exploring county-level statistics and running counterfactual simulations. Future studies can incorporate the model-derived indices of social distancing and policy impacts as important social determinants of COVID-19 health outcomes.

Geographic Differences in Social Determinants of Health Among US-Born and Non–US-Born Hispanic/Latino Adults With Diagnosed HIV Infection, United States and Puerto Rico, 2017

2021 ◽  
pp. 003335492097053
Author(s):  
Zanetta Gant ◽  
Shacara Johnson Lyons ◽  
Chan Jin ◽  
André Dailey ◽  
Ndidi Nwangwu-Ike ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Median Household Income ◽  
Federal Poverty Level ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Hiv Diagnosis ◽  
Latino Adults ◽  
Us Census

Objective HIV disproportionately affects Hispanic/Latino people in the United States, and factors other than individual attributes may be contributing to these differences. We examined differences in the distribution of HIV diagnosis and social determinants of health (SDH) among US-born and non–US-born Hispanic/Latino adults in the United States and Puerto Rico. Methods We used data reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National HIV Surveillance System (NHSS) to determine US census tract–level HIV diagnosis rates and percentages among US-born and non–US-born Hispanic/Latino adults aged ≥18 for 2017. We merged data from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey with NHSS data to examine regional differences in federal poverty level, education, median household income, employment, and health insurance coverage among 8648 US-born (n = 3328) and non–US-born (n = 5320) Hispanic/Latino adults. Results A comparison of US-born and non–US-born men by region showed similar distributions of HIV diagnoses. The largest percentages occurred in census tracts where ≥19% of residents lived below the federal poverty level, ≥18% did not finish high school, the median household income was <$40 000 per year, ≥6% were unemployed, and ≥16% did not have health insurance. A comparison of US-born and non–US-born women by region showed similar distributions. Conclusion The findings of higher numbers of HIV diagnoses among non–US-born Hispanic/Latino adults than among US-born Hispanic/Latino adults, regional similarities in patterns of SDH and HIV percentages and rates, and Hispanic/Latino adults faring poorly in each SDH category are important for understanding SDH barriers that may be affecting Hispanic/Latino adults with HIV in the United States.

Middle-Class Victorian Street Arabs: Modern Re-creations of the Baker Street Irregulars

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Cheetham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Street Children ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sherlock Holmes ◽  
Upward Shift

In three of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories there are brief appearances of the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of ‘street Arabs’ who help Holmes with his investigations. These children have been re-imagined in modern children's literature in at least twenty-seven texts in a variety of media and with writers from both Britain and the United States. All these modern stories show a marked upward shift in the class of the Irregulars away from the lower working class of Conan-Doyle's originals. The shift occurs through attributing middle-class origins to the leaders of the Irregulars, through raising the class of the Irregulars in general, and through giving the children life environments more comfortable, safe, and financially secure than would have been possible for late-Victorian street children. Because of the variety in texts and writers, it is argued that this shift is not a result of the conscious political or ideological positions of individual writers, but rather reflects common unconscious narrative choices. The class-shift is examined in relation to the various pressures of conventions in children's literature, concepts of audience, and common concepts of class in society.

Fragments of the American Dream: Immigration, Race, and Medical Care in the Segregated South, 1929

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
John R Phillips
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Single Woman ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Legal Doctrine ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sunflower County

The cover photograph for this issue of Public Voices was taken sometime in the summer of 1929 (probably June) somewhere in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Very probably the photo was taken in Indianola but, perhaps, it was Ruleville. It is one of three such photos, one of which does have the annotation on the reverse “Ruleville Midwives Club 1929.” The young woman wearing a tie in this and in one of the other photos was Ann Reid Brown, R.N., then a single woman having only arrived in the United States from Scotland a few years before, in 1923. Full disclosure: This commentary on the photo combines professional research interests in public administration and public policy with personal interests—family interests—for that young nurse later married and became the author’s mother. From the scholarly perspective, such photographs have been seen as “instrumental in establishing midwives’ credentials and cultural identity at a key transitional moment in the history of the midwife and of public health” (Keith, Brennan, & Reynolds 2012). There is also deep irony if we see these photographs as being a fragment of the American dream, of a recent immigrant’s hope for and success at achieving that dream; but that fragment of the vision is understood quite differently when we see that she began a hopeful career working with a Black population forcibly segregated by law under the incongruously named “separate but equal” legal doctrine. That doctrine, derived from the United States Supreme Court’s 1896 decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, would remain the foundation for legally enforced segregation throughout the South for another quarter century. The options open to the young, white, immigrant nurse were almost entirely closed off for the population with which she then worked. The remaining parts of this overview are meant to provide the following: (1) some biographical information on the nurse; (2) a description, in so far as we know it, of why she was in Mississippi; and (3) some indication of areas for future research on this and related topics.

scholarly journals Associations between Greenspace and Gentrification-Related Sociodemographic and Housing Cost Changes in Major Metropolitan Areas across the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 3315
Author(s):  
Leah H. Schinasi ◽  
Helen V. S. Cole ◽  
Jana A. Hirsch ◽  
Ghassan B. Hamra ◽  
Pedro Gullon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Census Tract ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Effect Modification ◽  
Ethnic Composition ◽  
Housing Cost ◽  
Census Tract Level ◽  
Specific Distribution ◽  
Meta Analyses

Neighborhood greenspace may attract new residents and lead to sociodemographic or housing cost changes. We estimated relationships between greenspace and gentrification-related changes in the 43 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) of the United States (US). We used the US National Land Cover and Brown University Longitudinal Tracts databases, as well as spatial lag models, to estimate census tract-level associations between percentage greenspace (years 1990, 2000) and subsequent changes (1990–2000, 2000–2010) in percentage college-educated, percentage working professional jobs, race/ethnic composition, household income, percentage living in poverty, household rent, and home value. We also investigated effect modification by racial/ethnic composition. We ran models for each MSA and time period and used random-effects meta-analyses to derive summary estimates for each period. Estimates were modest in magnitude and heterogeneous across MSAs. After adjusting for census-tract level population density in 1990, compared to tracts with low percentage greenspace in 1992 (defined as ≤50th percentile of the MSA-specific distribution in 1992), those with high percentage greenspace (defined as >75th percentile of the MSA-specific distribution) experienced higher 1990–2000 increases in percentage of the employed civilian aged 16+ population working professional jobs (β: 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.11, 0.26) and in median household income (β: 0.23, 95% CI: 0.15, 0.31). Adjusted estimates for the 2000–2010 period were near the null. We did not observe evidence of effect modification by race/ethnic composition. We observed evidence of modest associations between greenspace and gentrification trends. Further research is needed to explore reasons for heterogeneity and to quantify health implications.

scholarly journals Race and Politics in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-179
Author(s):  
Howard A. Palley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
George Washington ◽  
Declaration Of Independence ◽  
Chattel Slavery ◽  
Race And Politics ◽  
Inalienable Rights

Abstract The Declaration of Independence asserts that “All men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Nevertheless, the United States, at its foundation has been faced with the contradiction of initially supporting chattel slavery --- a form of slavery that treated black slaves from Africa purely as a commercial commodity. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom had some discomfort with slavery, were slaveholders who both utilized slaves as a commodity. Article 1 of our Constitution initially treated black slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning representation in order to increase Southern representation in Congress. So initially the Constitution’s commitment to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” did not include the enslaved black population. This essay contends that the residue of this initial dilemma still affects our politics --- in a significant manner.

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