Cardiovascular Mortality among Hispanics in Texas: A County Level Analysis

Rabindra K. C., University of Texas at San Antonio

Cardiovascular disease mortality is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and in many industrial nations.Very little attention has been paid in the literature to the way in which residential segregation affects cardiovascular mortality.For this study, mortality data were taken from the vital statistics records for the period of 2005-2009 for each of the counties in Texas at the census tract level and population data were taken from 5 year estimates from ACS. Standardized Mortality Ratio(SMR) was used as outcome variable. Other independent variables were residential segregation measured from dissimilarity Index and Interaction Index, proportion of families under poverty, proportion of unemployment rate, proportion of population who has education more than or equal to Bachelor level. Quasi- Poison Model was used to explore the relationship.This study found that residential segregation affects cardiovascular mortality.This study also found negative effect of education and unemployment rate on cardiovascular mortality.