Risk prediction of advanced colorectal neoplasia varies by race and neighbourhood socioeconomic status.

Objective: Neighbourhood deprivation increases the risk of colorectal neoplasia and contributes to racial disparities observed in this disease. Developing race-specific advanced colorectal neoplasia (ACN) prediction models that include neighbourhood socioeconomic status has the potential to improve the accuracy of prediction.

Methods: The study includes 1457 European Americans (EAs) and 936 African Americans (AAs) aged 50-80 years undergoing screening colonoscopy.

Making the case for lead safe housing: Downstream effects of lead exposure on outcomes for children and youth.

Lead based paint is a predominate source of lead exposure in children, which has a documented negative effect on their health and development. Despite public health efforts, the housing stock in disinvested neighborhoods in many cities continues to present significant risk of childhood lead exposure. In this article, we describe how a multi-agency integrated data system was used to document the impact of lead exposure on indicators of child and youth development as recorded in educational and human service systems.

Using integrated data to examine the effects of summer youth employment program completion on educational and criminal justice system outcomes: Evidence from Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

The current study builds the evidence base on the effects of Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEP) both geographically and methodologically by linking SYEP participant records to a comprehensive integrated longitudinal database to better understand programmatic impacts on youth who completed participation in an SYEP in Cleveland, Ohio. The study matches SYEP participants and unselected applicants on various observed covariates using the Child Household Integrated Longitudinal Data (CHILD) System and relies upon propensity score matching techniques to estimate program completion impacts on educational and criminal justice system involvement outcomes. SYEP completion is associated with a lower prevalence of juvenile offense filings and incarceration events, better school attendance, and improved graduation rates 1-2 years following program participation.

Identifying Risk Factors and Advancing Services for Violently Injured Low-Income Black Youth.

Violent exposure among low-income, Black youth has reached alarming rates. Using administrative data that centers racial equity to understand risk factors and aid in prevention is a promising approach to address this complex problem. Medical records were linked to a comprehensive county-level integrated data system using a case-control design.

The role of the built environment, food prices and neighborhood poverty in fruit and vegetable consumption: An instrumental variable analysis of the moving to opportunity experiment.

The food environment has been associated with fruit and vegetable consumption, however many studies utilize cross-sectional research designs. This study examined 3,473 participants in the Moving to Opportunity experiment, who were randomized into groups that affected where they lived. The relationship between the built environment, food prices and neighborhood poverty, assessed over four to seven years, on fruit or vegetable consumption was examined using instrumental variable analysis.

Built Environment Exposures of Adults in the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.

This paper describes environmental exposures of adult participants in the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing (MTO) experiment over a four to seven year period from baseline to the interim evaluation. The MTO experiment randomized participants living in public housing or private assisted housing at baseline into experimental and control groups and provided a housing voucher for experimental group participants to move to neighborhoods with less than 10 percent of the population below the poverty line. However, few studies have examined how this move affected exposures to health promoting environments.

Dual System Youth and their Pathways: A Comparison of Incidence, Characteristics and System Experiences using Linked Administrative Data.

Insight into the characteristics and system experiences for youth who touch both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems has increased over the last decade. These youth are typically studied as one population and referred to as "crossover youth." While this literature contributes valuable insight into who crossover youth are, studies are virtually silent on distinguishing characteristics and experiences across different pathways leading to dual system contact.

Why Does Child Maltreatment Occur? Caregiver Perspectives and Analyses of Neighborhood Structural Factors Across Twenty Years.

Research on caregivers' views of factors that contribute to child maltreatment and analyses of neighborhood structural factors offer opportunities for enhancing prevention and intervention efforts. This study compared explanations of the factors that contribute to child maltreatment in a neighborhood-based sample of adult caregivers at two-time points: 1995-1996 and 2014-2015 along with analyses of neighborhood structural conditions during the same period. The study sample consisted of two cross-sectional subsamples: 400 adult caregivers in 20 census tracts in Cleveland, Ohio from a 1995-1996 study, and 400 adult caregivers of the same 20 census tracts surveyed in 2014-2015.

Contextual characteristics associated with the perceived neighbourhood scale in a cross-sectional study in a large urban centre in Brazil.

Introduction: Health outcomes have been associated with physical and social characteristics of neighbourhoods, but little is known about the relationship between contextual factors and perceived neighbourhood scale.

Objective: To identify the contextual factors associated with self-perceived neighbourhood scale.

Methods: We analysed data from a cross-sectional population-based study in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, that took place in 2008-2009.

Understanding trends in neighborhood child maltreatment rates: A three-wave panel study 1990-2010.

This study examines how changes in the social and economic structure of neighborhoods relate to changes in child maltreatment report rates over an extended period. The panel study design allows us to partition the changes in child maltreatment report rates into a portion associated with how the levels of socio-economic risk factors have changed over time, and a portion related to how the relative importance of those factors in explaining maltreatment report rates has changed over time. Through the application of fixed effects panel models, the analysis is also able to control for unmeasured time-invariant characteristics of neighborhoods that may be a source of bias in cross-sectional studies.

Two sides of the same neighborhood? Multilevel analysis of residents' and child-welfare workers' perspectives on neighborhood social disorder and collective efficacy.

Neighborhood processes have been shown to influence child maltreatment rates, and accordingly neighborhood-based strategies have been suggested as helpful in intervening in and preventing child maltreatment. Although child-welfare workers are at the forefront of child maltreatment work, little is known about the extent to which their perspectives on neighborhood processes related to child maltreatment align with those of neighborhood residents. The current study examined the views of neighborhood residents (n = 400) and neighborhood-based child-welfare workers (n = 260) on 2 neighborhood process measures: social disorder and collective efficacy.

Change and consistency in descriptions of child maltreatment: A comparison of caregivers' perspectives 20 years apart.

Although approximately one-fifth of child maltreatment reports originate with family members, friends, neighbors, or community members, their efforts to identify and report child maltreatment are still not well understood. Nor is it well understood how these individuals' perceptions of what constitutes maltreatment may change over time. This study examined descriptions of behavior perceived as maltreatment by caregivers of minors in Cleveland, Ohio, USA neighborhoods.

Dataset of the livability performance of the city of Birmingham, UK, as measured by its citizen wellbeing, resource security, resource efficiency and carbon emissions.

This data article presents the UK City LIFE data set for the city of Birmingham, UK. UK City LIFE is a new, comprehensive and holistic method for measuring the livable sustainability performance of UK cities. The Birmingham data set comprises 346 indicators structured simultaneously (1) within a four-tier, outcome-based framework in order to aid in their interpretation (e.

Accuracy of Cardiovascular Risk Prediction Varies by Neighborhood Socioeconomic Position: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Inequality in health outcomes in relation to Americans' socioeconomic position is rising.

Objective: First, to evaluate the spatial relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and major atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)-related events; second, to evaluate the relative extent to which neighborhood disadvantage and physiologic risk account for neighborhood-level variation in ASCVD event rates.

Design: Observational cohort analysis of geocoded longitudinal electronic health records.

Adolescent self-defined neighborhoods and activity spaces: spatial overlap and relations to physical activity and obesity.

Defining the proper geographic scale for built environment exposures continues to present challenges. In this study, size attributes and exposure calculations from two commonly used neighborhood boundaries were compared to those from neighborhoods that were self-defined by a sample of 145 urban minority adolescents living in subsidized housing estates. Associations between five built environment exposures and physical activity, overweight and obesity were also examined across the three neighborhood definitions.

How big is my neighborhood? Individual and contextual effects on perceptions of neighborhood scale.

Neighborhood is a social and geographic concept that plays an increasingly important role in research and practice that address disparities in health and well-being of populations. However, most studies of neighborhoods, as well as community initiatives geared toward neighborhood improvement, make simplifying assumptions about boundaries, often relying on census geography to operationalize the neighborhood units. This study used geographic information system (GIS) tools to gather and analyze neighborhood maps drawn by residents of low-income communities in 10 cities.

Utilization and physical activity levels at renovated and unrenovated school playgrounds.

Objective: This study examined utilization and physical activity levels at renovated compared to unrenovated school playgrounds.

Methods: Ten unrenovated and ten renovated school playgrounds (renovated at least a year prior) in Cleveland, OH were matched on school and neighborhood characteristics. Using direct observation (SOPLAY), the number of persons attending each playground and their physical activity levels were recorded using separate counts for girls, boys, men and women.

The benefits of life table analysis for describing disproportionality.

This article reviews how life table analysis can improve on cross-sectional analysis of disproportionality by comparing African American and Caucasian children's risk of being investigated for child maltreatment or being placed in foster care before their 10th birthday. We then highlight the application of life table results in advocacy. Newspaper commentaries and presentations for community groups using these results raised awareness with policymakers and in turn helped to increase funding and programming that addresses disproportionality.

Taking it to scale: evaluating the scope and reach of a community-wide initiative on early childhood.

In implementing broad community initiatives, the ability to assess the delivery of services is a distinct challenge. Yet, understanding both the magnitude and cross-usage of services by target populations is often a precursor to effective program evaluation, program improvement and additional program planning. This research examines the extent to which a comprehensive early childhood initiative successfully reached young children and their families in a large urban county.

How neighborhoods influence child maltreatment: a review of the literature and alternative pathways.

Objective: To review the literature on the relationships between neighborhoods and child maltreatment and identify future directions for research in this area.

Method: A search of electronic databases and a survey of experts yielded a list of 25 studies on the influence of geographically defined neighborhoods on child maltreatment. These studies were then critically reviewed by an interdisciplinary research team.

Measuring child maltreatment risk in communities: a life table approach.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to: (1) illustrate the application of life table methodology to child abuse and neglect report data and (2) demonstrate the use of indicators derived from the life tables for monitoring the risk of child maltreatment within a community.

Method: Computerized records of child maltreatment reports from a large, urban county in Ohio are cumulated for 11 years and linked for each child. Life table methods are used to estimate the probability that children from birth to age 10 will be reported victims of maltreatment by age, race, and urban or suburban residence.

Building community capacity for violence prevention.

The capacity of communities to prevent violence is examined from three perspectives: youth violence, child maltreatment, and intimate partner violence. The analysis suggests that community social control and collective efficacy are significant protective factors for all three types of violence, but these need to be further distinguished for their relationships to private, parochial, and state controls. It is argued that strong interpersonal ties are not the only contributor to collective efficacy and violence prevention.

Mapping residents' perceptions of neighborhood boundaries: a methodological note.

Neighborhood influences on children and youth are the subjects of increasing numbers of studies, but there is concern that these investigations may be biased, because they typically rely on census-based units as proxies for neighborhoods. This pilot study tested several methods of defining neighborhood units based on maps drawn by residents, and compared the results with census definitions of neighborhoods. When residents' maps were used to create neighborhood boundary definitions, the resulting units covered different space and produced different social indicator values than did census-defined units.

Neighborhood views on the definition and etiology of child maltreatment.

Objective: The purpose of this study, as part of a larger study on neighborhoods and child maltreatment, was to determine how parents residing in neighborhoods with differing profiles of risk for child maltreatment reports defined child abuse and neglect and viewed its etiology.

Method: Parents (n = 400) were systematically selected from neighborhoods (n=20) with different profiles of risk for child maltreatment report rates. As part of a larger interview, parents were asked to generate lists of behaviors that they would define as child abuse and neglect and to rate 13 etiological factors on a 10 point scale as to their contribution to the occurrence of child maltreatment.