Neighborhood Disorder, Social Ties, and Preventive Healthcare Utilization among Urban-Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

Objectives: This research examines whether perceived neighborhood disorder influences the use of preventive healthcare services (i.e. influenza vaccine, pneumonia vaccine, cholesterol screening, colonoscopy, and dental care) by older adults and whether social ties buffer the potential adverse effects of perceived neighborhood disorder. Methods: Using data from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, binary logistic regression was used to generate odds ratio estimates of preventive healthcare use in the past 2 years. Results: We find that greater levels of neighborhood disorder were associated with fewer dental care visits net of social and health factors. Regular participation in four or more social activities was associated with decreased odds of restricted use and increased odds of receiving a pneumonia vaccine and colonoscopy. Discussion: This research provides evidence that perceived neighborhood disorder may act as a barrier for specific preventive healthcare services and highlights the need for targeted intervention.

Development of a new measure of encounters with health care barriers: The Commonly Experienced Health Care Barriers Index.

“…Based on this analysis, four items reflecting concrete types of external barriers were added. To address the final step, this pool was compared with eight published, quantitative studies with self-report items assessing external barriers to health care (Ahmed et al, 2001;Clement et al, 2012;Fitzpatrick et al, 2004;Gerreth & Borysewicz-Lewicka, 2016;Hippisley-Cox et al, 2006;Kohlenberger et al, 2019;Kullgren et al, 2012;Seid et al, 2004). This resulted in the addition of one more item.…”

“…They may also report poorer health-related quality of life (Seid et al, 2004), which may be both a predictor and consequence of health care utilization problems. Similarly, individuals with more barriers to health care access are also likely experiencing major life stressors in other domains that lead to poorer health care utilization, such as neighborhood violence (Ceasar et al, 2020; Latham-Mintus et al, 2020), financial problems (Jones et al, 2021; Zheng et al, 2020), or general stress (McKenna et al, 2019). On the one hand, a measure of barriers is theoretically expected to demonstrate convergent correlations with all these types of health experiences and life stressors (patient–practitioner alliance, medical confusion, health-related quality of life, neighborhood violence, financial problems, and general stress).…”

Trajectories of Preventive Health Care Utilization Among Older Koreans: The Role of Social Relationships

“…Vozikaki and colleagues (2017) showed that attending social meetings and groups was associated with greater use of preventive health care. Studies based on older Taiwanese (Peng & Lin, 2018) and U.S. adults (Latham-Mintus et al, 2020) also reported that social participation was associated with a range of preventive health service utilization. Social norms and peer pressure for obtaining relevant preventive services might explain the association between social group participation and health screening (Craddock et al, 2015; Tucker, 2002).…”

Mothers with justice‐involved sons: Socioeconomic impacts of COVID‐19 by neighborhood disorder in the United States

“…Social disorder is typically characterized by public behaviors such as drinking, drug use, and fighting (Jaśkiewicz & Wiwatowska, 2018; Raudenbush & Sampson, 1999; Sampson & Raudenbush, 2004; Skogan, 2012, 2015). Neighborhood poverty, individual low income, the concentration of racial and ethnic minorities, and crime rates, among others, increase the perception of neighborhood social disorder (Franzini et al., 2008; Latkin et al., 2009; Sampson & Raudenbush, 2004; Wickes et al., 2013). Neighborhood social disorder tends to be concentrated in economically disadvantaged communities, regardless of whether disorder is reported by community insiders or outsiders (Skogan, 2012).…”

“…Additionally, individuals living in disordered neighborhoods have limited access to health care and therefore struggle maintaining their health and receiving preventative care (Kirby & Kaneda, 2005;Zuberi & Teixeria, 2017). For example, research has found associations between high neighborhood disorder and reduced adherence to HIV treatment regimens (Surratt et al, 2015), poorer glycemic control among Type 1 diabetic adolescents (Queen et al, 2017), fewer mammograms (Davey-Rothwell et al, 2016), and fewer dental visits (Latham-Mintus et al, 2020) among individuals 50 years of age and above.…”