Racial Residential Segregation and Health Care Access

Daisy C. Carreon, University of California, Irvine

Previous studies that have examined the association between racial residential segregation and health care access relied heavily on a measure called racial/ethnic composition, e.g. percent black in a county or census tract. My research looks at more formal measures of segregation and whether they are also related to health care use. I analyze the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System merged with other data sources. Results show that county-level dissimilarity index, which captures the segregation dimension of evenness, is not significantly associated with health care use. In contrast, county-level isolation indices that measure the segregation dimension of exposure are significantly related to having a regular source of health care and getting a flu shot for Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans. These findings are part of an ongoing project which will ultimately explore the correlation between multiple dimensions of segregation and health care access and the implications of these relationships.