Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Segregation on Racial and Ethnic Health

Places with high concentrations of African Americans or Hispanics tend to be places with limited opportunity and infrastructure resulting from a lack of investment in social and economic development. The result is a community that produces bad health outcomes. So, race inequalities in health may be mainly the result of race differences in who is exposed to communities that facilitate good health. At the request of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, LaVeist, Gaskin, and Trujillo assessed the relationship between racial segregation and disparities in infant mortality among U.S. cities. Two sets of analysis were conducted to demonstrate the influence of “place” in affecting health.

This fact sheet summarizes the findings of Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Racial Segregation on Health Inequalities.