Assessing Contextual and Individual-Level Predictors of U.S. Diabetes Mortality

• In Event: 546 - Section on Sociology of Population Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Mortality

Abstract

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) prevalence has spiked considerably in recent years, and minority populations have been disproportionately impacted by this epidemic. Past research has established that individual socioeconomic status plays a key role in determining one’s access to resources in T2DM disease management. More recent work has begun to recognize neighborhood-level factors as a similarly important contributor to individual health and mortality, independent of individual SES. The present study uses innovative new restricted data from the 1997-2004 National Health Interview Survey linked to deaths from the National Death Index through 2011 to estimate contextual contributors to diabetes mortality. These individuals are then linked to information from the 2000 U.S. Census to estimate the effects of factors such as neighborhood income, levels of receipt of public assistance, and concentration of racial and ethnic minority populations. Preliminary findings suggest that neighborhood income and percentage of public assistance are meaningful and statistically significant predictors of diabetes mortality independent of individual demographics and health behaviors.

Authors

• Jeff Dennis, University of Texas-Permian Basin

• Jarron M. Saint Onge, University of Kansas

• Justin T. Denney, Rice University