It is widely known that social factors that coexist in places with concentrations of disadvantaged residents are part of a complex web of interrelated factors that are only beginning to be understood. The health disparities associated with these economic, educational, and social factors are complex, multifactorial relationships that cannot be reduced to a single etiology or mitigated by a single policy solution. To sum up these socioeconomic and neighborhood risks, we developed an index for comparing the aggregate level of opportunity in Alameda County neighborhoods. We statistically combined a set of measures into a single community opportunity index (COI) for each census tract. The COI was calculated according to the following factors:
- percentage of the population above 150% of the federal poverty limit
- percentage of the adult population with at least a high school education
- average language arts and mathematics proficiency scores
- violent crime rate
- property crime rate
- percentage of the population currently on probation
- foreclosure rate
- employment rate
- percentage of owner-occupied households
- percentage of households with an automobile
Census tracts in the lowest quintile for community opportunity had more than double the property crime rate, more than five times the violent crime rate and poverty rate, and more than seven times the percentage of adults lacking a high school education than census tracts in the highest quintile for community opportunity
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There was a strong geographic relationship in Oakland between community opportunity and life expectancy. Census tracts with the lowest level of community opportunity and life expectancy were geographically clustered in West Oakland, Elmhurst, and Central East Oakland.
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All charts, figures, and statistical analysis performed by VCU Center on Society and Health
All maps created by the Virginia Network for Geospatial Health Research
