A recent study led by the University of California, Irvine found that the number of sociocultural institutions within an ethnic community may play a key role in positively influencing the health of immigrant Asian Americans and Hispanics.
In the study, published online in the journal Social Science and Medicine, the researchers developed and tested two new measures of sociocultural institutions in Asian and Hispanic populations to identify different mechanisms linking minority neighborhoods and health outcomes.
“Our new assessment criteria capture aspects of the local economy that may support residents through linguistically and culturally appropriate services, employment and social organizations, and help estimate how that impacts the health of the community. Instead of census data, we used business lists to identify organizations that promote cultural and social identity, including arts, civic, historical, religious, community service and membership.”
Brittany Morey, corresponding author, Joe C. Wen Associate Professor of Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Population and Public Health
Using keyword searches, they conducted an online audit of 1,627 businesses in 12 cities to identify sociocultural institutions that may serve Asian or Hispanic people and to assess their density within census tracts. Exploratory regression analyses indicated that higher presence of SCIs may be associated with neighborhood-level health indicators. Researchers found that when there was a higher number of SCIs, Asian-majority tracts had a higher proportion of residents who received annual health screenings and that both Asian-majority and Hispanic-majority tracts had fewer smokers.
“Our approach advances methodology for measuring neighborhood SCI by collecting data that has previously been overlooked,” Morey said. “Further research will be conducted to examine whether economic resources, social capital, and the built environment positively influence community-level well-being, potentially suggesting that support for neighborhood SCI may reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.”
Other team members included faculty, research scientists, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students from the University of California, Irvine, University of California, San Francisco, University of Southern California, Columbia University, Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York.
sauce:
University of California, Irvine
Journal References:
Morey, BN, et al. (2024). Measurement of Sociocultural Institutions Serving Asian and Hispanic Neighborhoods Using Business Listing Data and a Validation Study of Potential Health Effects. Social Science and Medicine. doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117143.
