Doebler, Donna Charissa Almario
(2009)
DEVELOPING COMPOSITE AREA-LEVEL INDICATORS OF SOCIOECONOMIC POSITION FOR PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Objective: To develop a process to construct composite area-level indicators of socioeconomic position (SEP) from existing SEP measures and examine how well they predict the proportion of low birth weight (LBW) infants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Methodology: Twelve existing measures of SEP were derived from U.S. Census 2000 and constructed at block group (BG) and neighborhood (NB) levels. Geocoded individual-level LBW data were obtained from Allegheny County Birth Registry (2003-2006) and aggregated to BG level for Pittsburgh. The indicator development process included multilevel data exploration (boxplots, variance decomposition, mapping, and examining correlations), exploratory multilevel factor analysis (MFA), and model selection. Multilevel linear regression (MLR) and diagnostic tests were used to examine whether indicators of SEP predicted LBW. Results: MFA identified two BG-level factors: "material and economic deprivation" (MEDij, mean=29.8, variance=184.8), representing percentage of individuals or households not owning a car, renting their residence, in poverty, receiving public assistance, and earning low income; and "concentrated disadvantage" (CDij, mean=15.7, variance=164.4), representing percentage of Blacks, single-headed families, having family members under 18 years old, and receiving public assistance. At NB level, all 12 SEP measures were captured in one factor, "overall neighborhood deprivation" (ONDj, mean=29.3, variance =115.9). MLR identified significant associations between both ONDj and MEDij and LBW: a unit increase in ONDj was associated with 0.003 increase in LBW infants (p<0.001), and a unit increase in MEDij was associated with 0.0018 increase (p<0.01). The association between CDij and LBW was moderated by ONDj (p=0.017): in NBs with high ONDj, LBW increased as CDij increased, while in NBs with low ONDj, LBW decreased as CDij increased. This result suggests that lower levels of ONDj may ameliorate the effects of high CDij at the BG level in Pittsburgh. Conclusion: The study outlines a novel approach to examining area-level associations between SEP and health by utilizing MFA to develop BG and NB composite SEP measures; this approach has not been reported in previous neighborhood research. An important public health implication is that these methods facilitate a closer examination of the mechanisms by which SEP at different area-levels could impact health.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
29 September 2009 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
17 July 2009 |
| Approval Date: |
29 September 2009 |
| Submission Date: |
1 August 2009 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Public Health > Biostatistics |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
ADVERSE BIRTH OUTCOMES; CONTEXTUAL FACTORS; MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08012009-221605/, etd-08012009-221605 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:56 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:47 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8808 |
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