Residential Racial Isolation and Spatial Patterning of Hypertension in Durham, North Carolina
ORIGINAL RESEARCH — Volume 16 — March 28, 2019
PEER REVIEWED
In panel A, spatial clusters of blocks with high proportions of non-Hispanic black patients with hypertension are not readily apparent. There appear to be more blocks with high proportions of non-Hispanic black patients with hypertension in the far northern and eastern areas of the county. In panel B, there is a similar phenomenon, although there are more blocks in which a high proportion of non-Hispanic white patients have hypertension in the far east of the county. There are more blocks in which a low proportion of non-Hispanic white patients have hypertension in central and western areas of the county.
Figure 1.
Proportion of patients with hypertension in 2010 Census blocks, by quintile, Duke Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse patient data, Durham, North Carolina. A, Non-Hispanic black patients. B, Non-Hispanic white patients.
Blocks with the highest values of racial isolation of non-Hispanic black residents are concentrated in the center of Durham County. Blocks with the lowest values of racial isolation of non-Hispanic black residents are more prevalent on the outskirts of Durham County, particularly in blocks towards the northeast, far east, and west.
Figure 2.
Index value, by quintile, for census-block–level racial isolation of non-Hispanic black residents, Durham, North Carolina. Index of racial isolation is scaled from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating complete isolation.
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