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Archived
June, 2007 |
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Study
Finds Urban, Suburban Blacks Improving on Important Economic, Health
Indicators, Including Poverty, Teen Birth, Low Birth Weight Rates; But
Blacks Still Lag Behind Whites as Racial/Ethnic Disparities Persist;
City-by-City Findings Mixed for Hispanics, Other Population Groups
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (AScribe Newswire)
A new report released today reveals mixed
progress in reducing urban and suburban racial and
ethnic disparities in key economic and health indicators, with
black residents showing marked improvements on
several of the indicators. Specifically, between
1990 and 2000, poverty rates declined and per
capita income increased for both urban and suburban blacks, while both
groups made considerable progress on teen births, and prenatal
care. Black mothers in the cities were the only
group whose low birth weight rate declined
during the 1990s.
The report, "Dynamics in Race, Culture, and Key Indicators of
Health in the Nation's 100 Largest Cities and Their Suburbs,"
compares key economic and health indicators
across racial and ethnic groups in the 100
largest cities and their suburbs. Researchers used 1990 and
2000 Census and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data to
arrive at their findings. Access to the full report and to city
specific data are available online at
http://www.downstate.edu/healthdata.
"Our findings for urban and suburban black residents are very
good news, but we must keep it in perspective. Despite the
impressive gains, averages for city and suburban
black residents remain well below those for
whites on virtually all measures," said Dennis
Andrulis, PhD, a research professor at the SUNY Downstate Medical
Center in Brooklyn, New York and lead author of the study. "The
pace of future gains may be limited by the
downturn in the economy and cuts in public
health and insurance programs." The study, which
was funded by The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, also found that Hispanics, on average, showed
comparatively little progress on key indicators. Hispanics showed
only modest progress in teen births and prenatal
care rates and their low birth weight rates in
urban and suburban areas edged up. Nor did
Hispanics keep up with blacks or other groups on improvements in
poverty and per capita income during the 1990s.
In addition, the study documented that Asian rates improved by
most measures and whites continue to have the best rates overall.
Both groups had notable exceptions, however.
Whites and Asians led blacks and Hispanics on
low birth weight rate increases in both cities and
suburbs. Suburban white mothers led all groups with a 17 percent
increase in low birth weight rates from 1990 to 2000.
The report also documents that by these economic and health
measures, cities and suburbs are no longer going in opposite
directions-and may actually be coming more closely aligned.
According to Andrulis, "The measures we examined
are tracking similarly in urban and suburban
America. In some cases, rates of improvement are greater
in the cities or, as in the case of low birth weight, suburbs are
losing ground faster than the cities."
Below are more specific findings broken out according to the
indicators studied.
Poverty and Per Capita Income Rates
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Black residents experienced dramatic declines in poverty
rates in cities (13 percent) and suburbs (20 percent) between 1989
and 1999, with concomitant rises in per capita
income - a 20 percent increase in cities and a
23 percent increase in suburbs. However, black
poverty rates are still more than twice that of whites in both
cities (26.5 percent v. 11.5 percent) and suburbs (18.4 percent v.
7.3 percent), and black per capita income is
just over half that of whites in cities and
two-thirds of white per capita income in the suburbs, on
average. |
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Urban and suburban Hispanics experienced only minimal
declines in poverty rates (2 percent and 1 percent, respectively).
Urban Hispanics were the only group to experience a decrease in per
capita income between 1989 and 1999 (3 percent), while suburban
Hispanics had a slight increase (4 percent). |
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Asians had the greatest city poverty rate decline (20
percent) between 1989 and 1999, with the rate among suburban Asians
also dropping 13 percent. Urban Asians also had the greatest per
capita income increase (24 percent), and suburban Asians had the
second largest per capita income increase (16 percent). |
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Whites were the only group that saw no change in city poverty
rates, with a modest decline (8 percent) in suburban rates. Whites
continue to have the lowest poverty rates and highest per capita
income, on average. |
Maternal/Infant
Health:
Low Birth Weight, Teen Births, and Early
Prenatal Care
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Black mothers in the 100 largest cities were the only group
to show a decrease (4 percent) in low birth weight rates between
1990 and 2000. City blacks also tied city whites
for the biggest improvement in the percent of
births to teens: a decline of 14 percent. City
blacks had a 20 percent increase and suburban blacks had
a 15 percent increase in the rates of early prenatal care (first
trimester). Despite these improvements, however, black mothers
still lag considerably behind white mothers on
all three indicators. |
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Hispanics experienced only moderate increases in low-birth
weight rates - 2 percent in cities and 6 percent in suburbs from
1990 to 2000 - and now have a low birth weight
rate on par with city and suburban whites, on
average. Hispanics made little progress in the
cities and no progress in the suburbs, on average, in reducing the
percent of births to teens. City and suburban Hispanic mothers made
moderate progress in improving rates of early prenatal care. As of
2000, however, Hispanic mothers have the lowest average city (72
percent) and suburban rates (75 percent) for early prenatal care. |
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Suburban whites saw the largest increase (17 percent) in low
birth weight rates, with the rate among urban whites also
increasing by 12 percent. The percent of births
to teens dropped 14 percent among urban whites
and 8 percent among suburban whites between 1990 and
2000. City and suburban white mothers made the smallest gains in
receiving early prenatal care, but continue to have the highest
rates overall (88 percent and 90 percent
respectively). |
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The low birth weight rate increased 10 percent among both
urban and suburban Asians between 1990 and 2000. Asian mothers had
the largest suburban decrease in the percent of
births to teens during this period (13 percent).
Suburban Asians also have the lowest percent of
births to teens at just under 4 percent - a rate that is half that
for suburban whites. Asian mothers experienced moderate gains in
rates of early prenatal care, with city (81
percent) and suburban (86 percent) rates in 2000
second to those for white mothers. |
Tuberculosis Rates
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Metropolitan area tuberculosis rates declined between 1996
and 2000 for all four racial/ethnic groups, but increased for
foreign-born residents by 6 percent to 26 per 100,000 population. |
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Metropolitan Asians have the highest tuberculosis rates of the four
racial/ethnic groups: 30 per 100,000 population, a rate that is 15
times the white metropolitan rate of 2 per 100,000. |
Languages Spoken at Home
Both cities and suburbs experienced almost a 30 percent
increase in the percent of residents who speak a language other
than English at home. In 2000, more than
one-fifth of city residents (22 percent) and one
sixth of suburban residents (16 percent) spoke a
language other than English at home. This finding may have significant
implications for health and social service programs that will need
to adapt to the language needs and cultural
norms of diverse populations.
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Disparity
