Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status in Relation to All-cause, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Mortality in the Black Women’s Health Study

Background: Neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with adverse health outcomes, but longitudinal data among Black Americans, who tend to live in more deprived neighborhoods, is lacking. Objectives: We prospectively assessed the relation of neighborhood SES to mortality in the Black Women’s Health Study. Design: A prospective cohort of 59,000 Black women was followed from 1995-2011. Participant addresses were geocoded and US Census block group was identified. Neighborhood SES was measured by a score based on US Census block group data for six indicators of income, education and wealth. Main outcome measures: Deaths were identified through the National Death Index. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs with control for covariates. Results: Based on 2,598 deaths during 1995-2011, lower neighborhood SES was associated with increased all-cause and cancer mortality irrespective of individual education: among those with 16 or more years of education, HRs for lowest relative to highest neighborhood SES quartile were 1.42 (95% CI 1.18-1.71) for all-cause and 1.54 (95% CI 1.14-2.07) for cancer mortality. Neighborhood SES was associated with cardiovascular mortality among lesseducated women. Conclusions: Lower neighborhood SES is associated with greater risk of mortality among Black women. The presence of the association even among women with high levels of education suggests that individual SES may not overcome the unfavorable influence of neighborhood deprivation. Ethn Dis. 2016;26(2):157-164; doi:10.18865/ ed.26.2.157