Community structure and mortality : the effects of community on the health status of nonmetropolitan minorities in Texas, 1990 /
The social and economic characteristics and lack of access to medical resources associated with poor health are much worse for nonmetropolitan than metropolitan populations, especially the nonmetropolitan minority population. Health research on nonmetropolitan populations has lacked both the integr...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2001.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=729051651&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | The social and economic characteristics and lack of access to medical resources associated with poor health are much worse for nonmetropolitan than metropolitan populations, especially the nonmetropolitan minority population. Health research on nonmetropolitan populations has lacked both the integrative approach and theory-driven analysis needed to understand the differences and similarities in the factors which affect the health status of nonmetropolitan Anglos, Hispanics, and Blacks in Texas. This type of research is needed to help understand the disparities in the health status between these populations. This study uses socioeconomic data from the 1990 Census of Population, mortality and physician data from the Texas Department of Health, and hospital data from the Area Resource File to determine how social, physical, and community medical resources affect the health status of nonmetropolitan populations in Texas. An integrative model and community theory are used to analyze the effects of these community structural characteristics on the health status of nonmetropolitan Anglos, Hispanics, and Blacks in Texas. The results of the descriptive and multivariate analyses show that residents of nonmetropolitan residents in Texas have higher incidences of factors related to low health status than metropolitan residents. Nonmetropolitan Hispanics and Blacks were two to three times more disadvantaged than Anglos on factors such as marital status, education, occupation, unemployment and poverty. The age-adjusted mortality rates for all three nonmetropolitan population groups were higher than those for their metropolitan counterparts. The multivariate analysis showed that the mortality rates of all three nonmetropolitan populations were affected by two common variables: percent of total population and population density. There was little similarity in the factors which affect the health status of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan residents in Texas. For each population group, the variables used for the study did a better job of explaining the variance in the mortality rate for the metropolitan population than for the nonmetropolitan population. This study has some limitations that need to be considered. Non-normal distributions due to the problem of having a small number of cases for many of the counties and the resulting problem of outliers may affect the results of the study. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Sociology". |
| Physical Description: | xiv, 205 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-168). |