Assessing the association between crime and health in Kalamazoo County (2012-2016)

Keywords: health outcome, poor birth outcome, adult health, social vulnerability index, neighborhood crime, chronic disease, health management
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Addressing crime and violence as a public health issue is crucial to achieving health equity. However, crime as a social variable has been understudied.This study seeks to find association between crime-related stressors and adverse health within Kalamazoo(a mid-sized county with a population of about 250,000) between 2012 and 2016.The methods employed include geocoding defendant addresses and mapping defendant rates aggregated at tract level using ArcGIS Pro 3.0 using defendant database made available by the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office.Adult health data(2018) were obtained from CDC’s Places dataset and birth outcomes data from Michigan Vital Statistics through the WMU, Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine.The social vulnerability index and related variables for 2016 were obtained from the CDC.Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlations were used to assess the relationship between arrests, adult-health,birth outcome, and social vulnerability. Preliminarily results indicate a strong positive relationship among defendant population in tract and at-risk behaviors such as lack of physical activity and sleep, and cigarette smoking.Interestingly, the crime variables had negative relationship with drinking.The rate of defendants in a tract was positively correlated with chronic disease(stroke,heart disease) and negatively correlated with health management rates(diabetes testing and cancer screenings).Poor birth outcomes were also correlated to crime patterns, but to a lesser degree than adult health.Patterns in variables contributing to social vulnerability were examined with respect to health and crime variables.Overall, the high degree of correlation between adult health, vulnerability, and prevalence of defendants in tract suggests that crime is inextricably linked to individual and community health in vulnerable areas.