Use of a population-based survey to describe the health of Boston public housing residents.

Objectives: We compared the health of public housing residents with other Boston residents through a random-digit-dial survey.

Methods: We used data from the Boston Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System collected in 2001 and 2003 to make crude and demographically adjusted comparisons between public housing residents and other city residents on measures of health status, access and utilization, and health behaviors.

Results: Public housing residents were more likely to report fair or poor overall health status, ever-diagnosed hypertension, current asthma, ever-diagnosed diabetes, obesity, disability, loss of 6 or more teeth, and feelings of depression for 15 days or more in the past month.

The prevalence of blood pressure and cholesterol monitoring in Boston among non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites.

Objectives: Racial and ethnic minorities are at increased risk for hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. Appropriate blood pressure and cholesterol monitoring is a critical first step in identification, treatment, and control of these conditions and the prevention of coronary artery disease. This study examines blood pressure and cholesterol monitoring among non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White subjects.

Mapping and measuring social disparities in premature mortality: the impact of census tract poverty within and across Boston neighborhoods, 1999-2001.

The identification and documentation of health disparities are important functions of public health surveillance. These disparities, typically falling along lines defined by gender, race/ethnicity, and social class, are often made visible in urban settings as geographic disparities in health between neighborhoods. Recognizing that premature mortality is a powerful indicator of disparities in both health status and access to health care that can readily be monitored using routinely available public health surveillance data, we undertook a systematic analysis of spatial variation in premature mortality in Boston (1999-2001) across neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods in relation to census tract (CT) poverty.