Racial Isolation and Chlamydia Rates in US Counties

Abstract

Using a hypersegregation framework, this paper examines the relationship between racial isolation (i.e., segregation) and chlamydia rates in counties of different racial compositions. A series of “race-of-county”-stratified regression models estimate chlamydia rates with black isolation and white isolation, net of (i.e., controlling for) region, college graduation rates, sex ratios, unemployment rates, median income, population density, and income inequality. The results show that in white counties, both black isolation and white isolation are associated with decreases in chlamydia rates. In integrated and disproportionately black counties, black isolation is associated with higher rates of chlamydia, but white isolation is associated with lower rates of chlamydia. These findings suggest that the relationship of residential segregation to chlamydia rates differs when it is due to white isolation versus black isolation, and the effects of black isolation within disproportionately black counties are not equivalent to black isolation in white counties because the levels of concentrated disadvantage are not similar.