Date of Award

5-10-2019

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Geosciences

First Advisor

Dr. Dajun Dai

Second Advisor

Dr. Jeremy Diem

Third Advisor

Dr. Richard Rothenberg

Abstract

Health disparity is an issue of global concern necessitating diverse studies. This study thus, investigated intra city and inter-city health disparity for the 500 largest cities in the United States using the health determinant and outcome data at census tract level from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Urban Health Index (UHI) approach for small area assessment was used to compute for the UHI and disparity ratios for all 500 cities. Data for socioeconomic status was obtained from 2013-2017 American Community Survey 5-year estimate data. Urban sprawl data was collected from National Cancer Institute. Cities were ranked based on their disparity ratios from best to worst. OLS regression analysis was employed to research the driving factors of disparities. This research found that larger cities recorded higher health disparities than smaller cities. Greater disparities were present in cities in higher residential segregation for African Americans and less availability of cars, but in lower residential segregation for Hispanics. Because the regression residuals in the OLS model were not independent, more advanced models such as spatial regression models are necessary to investigate the influential factors.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.57709/14417838

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