Master of Arts / Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Mario V. Cano / Despite the substantial research conducted on racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system, the majority of research focuses on final sentencing decisions. Less attention has been devoted to earlier stages in criminal processing, such as the presentence detention process. In fact, the analyses that did investigate presentence detention status mainly used state-level data, and there is only a handful of studies that have examined race/ethnicity and gender effects on detention and bail in the federal criminal justice system (e.g., Albonetti, 1989; Bak, 1998: Reitler, et. al., 2012; Spohn, 2009). Furthermore, recent analyses have uncovered that extralegal disparities in presentence detention outcomes, particularly racial and ethnic disparities, vary across court jurisdictions (e.g., Levin, 2008; Pinchevski & Steiner, 2013; Eisenstein & Jacob, 1977). Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the effects of defendants’ race/ethnicity and gender, and social context, on defendants’ pretrial status. This study employs a multilevel modeling strategy and uses criminal sentencing data (N=130,120) from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) for fiscal years 2008 to 2010, across 89 U.S. District Courts, including supplemental data drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Judicial Center’s Federal Court Management Statistics. The initial findings indicate that Black and Hispanic defendants are less likely than Whites, and females are more likely than males, to be released on bail and rereleased on their own recognizance (ROR). Regarding the district level, ROR is less likely for defendants processed in districts with a higher crime rate and higher socioeconomic disadvantage. On the other hand, bail is more likely for defendants processed in districts with larger courts (more judges). In cross-level interactions increase in percent Black, increase in crime rate, and increase in socioeconomic disadvantage are positively associated with bail for Black defendants, while increase in percent Hispanic and court size are positively associated with bail for Hispanic defendants. Consistent with the courts as communities and focal concerns perspectives, this study found that the presentence process is influenced by local practices, norms, and concerns for organizational efficiency. These distinctive features of court jurisdictions interact with race/ethnicity and affect defendants' presentence status. Future research is needed to better assess the detention process with increased access to federal data. In addition, examination of intersectionality of race/ethnicity, gender and age at the presentence detention stage is required.

An improved understanding of the role of housing in asthma prevalence among African-American children is essential to addressing the issues associated with asthma and housing that perpetuate racial and ethnic health disparities. This study was conducted to examine the influence of substandard housing on the odds of asthma among low-income African-American children. The social ecological model was used as the theoretical framework for this study, that allowed consideration of the housing environment where African-American children live as an influential determinant of respiratory health. A cross-sectional research design using data obtained from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey and Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy were used to examine the association between income level and asthma and substandard housing and asthma among African-American children. Odds ratios derived from logistic regressions were used to determine the significance of the association between family income level and asthma diagnosis among African-American children. Linear regression was used to assess the strength of the association between an affirmative asthma diagnosis and substandard housing among low-income African-American children. The findings derived from this study suggest that income level was the most significant predictor of asthma risk among African-American children between the ages of 5-14 regardless of the absence or presence of housing issues within the child's home environment. The conclusions of this study have the potential to enact social change by demonstrating the need for improved population health data and additional research into other variables, beyond the scope of housing, that contribute to asthma risk in African-American children.

African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities in the U.S. continue to face conditions of residential and educational segregation, lower socioeconomic status, and higher rates of mortality than whites. Better theory-based research that uses community and individual level factors to explain how health disparities are created and perpetuated is needed. The Community Context and Health Disparities Model, which extends the work of Schulz and Northridge (2004) with elements described by Williams and Collins (2001), is described. This framework identifies the pathways by which characteristics of the physical, built, social, economic, and healthcare environments impact health and are mediated by individual traits. Two measures of the healthcare environment, physician density and emergency room hospital accessibility, are created using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), compared to traditional measures of these concepts, and contrasted across racial and ethnic populations. The Community Context and Health Disparities Model is implemented to understand physical and mental health disparities among a sample of older adults in Miami-Dade County who were participants in the Survey of Older Floridians using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Exogenous measures of each community domain, including the healthcare measures created, are used as community-level predictors of self-rated health and number of depressive symptoms. The results show that community poverty rate predicts self-rated health, but is no longer significant after individual attributes are controlled. There is a significant interaction between Hispanic ethnicity and community poverty associated with self-rated health. Hispanics are negatively impacted by community poverty but other ethnic groups are not. Depressive symptoms are found to be primarily explained by individual characteristics. Future research, practice recommendations and policy implications of these findings are described.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between residential segregation (the physical separation of Blacks and Whites in residential contexts) and adverse perinatal outcomes (low birth weight, preterm delivery and small for gestational age births) in Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. The study determined the independent effect of the level of residential segregation on the likelihood of adverse perinatal outcomes after controlling for contextual and individual factors. The study also assessed whether the relationship between residential segregation and adverse perinatal outcomes were moderated by ethnicity and median income.The studied employed an observational, cross-sectional study design that utilized secondary data. Live birth certificates between 1999 and 2001 provided information on individual covariates and perinatal outcomes. Structural indicators of residential segregation and contextual covariates were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. Th e nested data structure for each birth outcome model was composed of individual, contextual, and structural data. Three-level, hierarchical generalized linear models were used to test research hypotheses.The study population consisted of non-Hispanic White and Black primaparous women between 15 and 49 years of age experiencing singleton live births delivered at less than or equal to 45 weeks gestation. The final sample consisted of 255,548 women nested within 4,360 census tracts and 63 Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Areas. Residential segregation did not have a direct relationship with low birth weight, preterm delivery or small for gestational age, after controlling for other variables in multilevel models. Models testing the moderating effects of ethnicity indicated that increased Isolation decreased the risk of LBW among Black women. Several contextual --level variables and the majority of individual-level variables were significantly associated with perinatal outcome risk .Findings indicate that effects of residential segregation may be birth outcome and ethnic group specific. Relationships between individual factors, contextual factors and adverse perinatal outcomes signal the importance of proximal factors to perinatal outcomes. There is a need for specification of a broader constellation of biological, social and spatial factors and a thorough assessment of residential preferences and experiences in order to better understand the associations between neighborhoods and perinatal outcomes.

Aims: The aims of this thesis were to investigate trends and ethnic disparities in the incidence and outcome of stroke in Auckland, New Zealand between 1981 and 2003. Methods: Trends were assessed using information from the three Auckland Regional Community Stroke (ARCOS) studies, conducted in people (aged ≥15 years) in Auckland, during 12-month calendar periods in 1981-1982, 1991-1992, and 2001-2002. These studies used comparable definitions and case finding methods and have been shown to meet the stringent criteria for a population-based “ideal” stroke incidence study. Rates were calculated using Poisson distribution and are presented with 95% confidence intervals. Trends in survival were assessed using Cox Proportional hazards regression modelling. Results: Overall trends in the incidence and event rates of stroke declined across the study period. These declines were significant in males and for the ages 65 to 74 years only. However, growing disparities in the rates of stroke between the major ethnic groups in New Zealand were found, with significant declines in New Zealand Europeans and increases in Māori and Pacific populations. Dramatic improvements in survival over the study period were also found, with the greatest improvement in the acute period, within the first 28-days after stroke. Adjustments for patient or disease severity factors strengthened the survival model. However, adjustments for care/service factors nullified the survival model, thus explaining most of the improving trend. Conclusions: The small declines in the incidence of stroke, improvements in survival and the ageing of the New Zealand population will lead to data dramatic increases in the number of people living with the effects of stroke. To maintain stable numbers of strokes occurring, more intensive prevention strategies need to target high-risk populations and population-wide health education strategies are needed to improve the health of the general population, hence reducing the risk of stroke. / Health Research Council (HRC) of New Zealand Pacific Health PhD scholarship

Aims: The aims of this thesis were to investigate trends and ethnic disparities in the incidence and outcome of stroke in Auckland, New Zealand between 1981 and 2003. Methods: Trends were assessed using information from the three Auckland Regional Community Stroke (ARCOS) studies, conducted in people (aged ≥15 years) in Auckland, during 12-month calendar periods in 1981-1982, 1991-1992, and 2001-2002. These studies used comparable definitions and case finding methods and have been shown to meet the stringent criteria for a population-based “ideal” stroke incidence study. Rates were calculated using Poisson distribution and are presented with 95% confidence intervals. Trends in survival were assessed using Cox Proportional hazards regression modelling. Results: Overall trends in the incidence and event rates of stroke declined across the study period. These declines were significant in males and for the ages 65 to 74 years only. However, growing disparities in the rates of stroke between the major ethnic groups in New Zealand were found, with significant declines in New Zealand Europeans and increases in Māori and Pacific populations. Dramatic improvements in survival over the study period were also found, with the greatest improvement in the acute period, within the first 28-days after stroke. Adjustments for patient or disease severity factors strengthened the survival model. However, adjustments for care/service factors nullified the survival model, thus explaining most of the improving trend. Conclusions: The small declines in the incidence of stroke, improvements in survival and the ageing of the New Zealand population will lead to data dramatic increases in the number of people living with the effects of stroke. To maintain stable numbers of strokes occurring, more intensive prevention strategies need to target high-risk populations and population-wide health education strategies are needed to improve the health of the general population, hence reducing the risk of stroke. / Health Research Council (HRC) of New Zealand Pacific Health PhD scholarship

Aims: The aims of this thesis were to investigate trends and ethnic disparities in the incidence and outcome of stroke in Auckland, New Zealand between 1981 and 2003. Methods: Trends were assessed using information from the three Auckland Regional Community Stroke (ARCOS) studies, conducted in people (aged ≥15 years) in Auckland, during 12-month calendar periods in 1981-1982, 1991-1992, and 2001-2002. These studies used comparable definitions and case finding methods and have been shown to meet the stringent criteria for a population-based “ideal” stroke incidence study. Rates were calculated using Poisson distribution and are presented with 95% confidence intervals. Trends in survival were assessed using Cox Proportional hazards regression modelling. Results: Overall trends in the incidence and event rates of stroke declined across the study period. These declines were significant in males and for the ages 65 to 74 years only. However, growing disparities in the rates of stroke between the major ethnic groups in New Zealand were found, with significant declines in New Zealand Europeans and increases in Māori and Pacific populations. Dramatic improvements in survival over the study period were also found, with the greatest improvement in the acute period, within the first 28-days after stroke. Adjustments for patient or disease severity factors strengthened the survival model. However, adjustments for care/service factors nullified the survival model, thus explaining most of the improving trend. Conclusions: The small declines in the incidence of stroke, improvements in survival and the ageing of the New Zealand population will lead to data dramatic increases in the number of people living with the effects of stroke. To maintain stable numbers of strokes occurring, more intensive prevention strategies need to target high-risk populations and population-wide health education strategies are needed to improve the health of the general population, hence reducing the risk of stroke. / Health Research Council (HRC) of New Zealand Pacific Health PhD scholarship

Aims: The aims of this thesis were to investigate trends and ethnic disparities in the incidence and outcome of stroke in Auckland, New Zealand between 1981 and 2003. Methods: Trends were assessed using information from the three Auckland Regional Community Stroke (ARCOS) studies, conducted in people (aged ≥15 years) in Auckland, during 12-month calendar periods in 1981-1982, 1991-1992, and 2001-2002. These studies used comparable definitions and case finding methods and have been shown to meet the stringent criteria for a population-based “ideal” stroke incidence study. Rates were calculated using Poisson distribution and are presented with 95% confidence intervals. Trends in survival were assessed using Cox Proportional hazards regression modelling. Results: Overall trends in the incidence and event rates of stroke declined across the study period. These declines were significant in males and for the ages 65 to 74 years only. However, growing disparities in the rates of stroke between the major ethnic groups in New Zealand were found, with significant declines in New Zealand Europeans and increases in Māori and Pacific populations. Dramatic improvements in survival over the study period were also found, with the greatest improvement in the acute period, within the first 28-days after stroke. Adjustments for patient or disease severity factors strengthened the survival model. However, adjustments for care/service factors nullified the survival model, thus explaining most of the improving trend. Conclusions: The small declines in the incidence of stroke, improvements in survival and the ageing of the New Zealand population will lead to data dramatic increases in the number of people living with the effects of stroke. To maintain stable numbers of strokes occurring, more intensive prevention strategies need to target high-risk populations and population-wide health education strategies are needed to improve the health of the general population, hence reducing the risk of stroke. / Health Research Council (HRC) of New Zealand Pacific Health PhD scholarship

abstract: Identifying modifiable causes of chronic disease is essential to prepare for the needs of an aging population. Cognitive decline is a precursor to the development of Alzheimer's and other dementing diseases, representing some of the most prevalent and least understood sources of morbidity and mortality associated with aging. To contribute to the literature on cognitive aging, this work focuses on the role of vascular and physical health in the development of cognitive trajectories while accounting for the socioeconomic context where health disparities are developed. The Assets and Health Dynamics among the Oldest-Old study provided a nationally-representative sample of non-institutionalized adults age 65 and over in 1998, with biennial follow-up continuing until 2008. Latent growth models with adjustment for non-random missing data were used to assess vascular, physical, and social predictors of cognitive change. A core aim of this project was examining socioeconomic and racial/ethnic variation in vascular predictors of cognitive trajectories. Results indicated that diabetes and heart problems were directly related to an increased rate of memory decline in whites, where these risk factors were only associated with baseline word-recall for blacks when conditioned on gender and household assets. These results support the vascular hypotheses of cognitive aging and attest to the significance of socioeconomic and racial/ethnic variation in vascular influences on cognitive health. The second substantive portion of this dissertation used parallel process latent growth models to examine the co-development of cognitive and functional health. Initial word-recall scores were consistently associated with later functional limitations, but baseline functional limitations were not consistently associated with later word-recall scores. Gender and household income moderated this relationship, and indicators of lifecourse SES were better equipped to explain variation in initial cognitive and functional status than change in these measures over time. Overall, this work suggests that research examining associations between cognitive decline, chronic disease, and disability must account for the social context where individuals and their health develop. Also, these findings advocate that reducing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in cognitive health among the aging requires interventions early in the lifecourse, as disparities in cognitive trajectories were solidified prior to late old age. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sociology 2011

Foreign-born Black women giving birth in the United States have superior preterm birth outcomes compared to their U.S-born Black peers. Many studies have focused on tobacco use and medical risk factors, but few have focused solely on preconception health. The purpose of this study was to examine preconception health and preterm birth differences among U.S.-born and foreign-born Black women. Three theoretical frameworks guided this study: the life course theory, healthy migrant theory/immigrant paradox, and weathering theory. Primary research questions assessed (a) if there were an association between chronic preconception risk factors, prepregnancy obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, in U.S.-born and foreign-born Black women, (b) if U.S.-born Black women had a higher risk of having a preterm infant compared to foreign-born Black women, and (c) if weathering existed in U.S.-born and foreign-born Black women. A quantitative design using the 2017 Natality Public Use File was employed that included non-Hispanic Black women ages 15 to 44 years. Chi-square test and binary logistic regression were used for the data analysis. Key findings revealed (a) a statistically significant association between preterm birth and chronic preconception health risk factors in both groups of women, (b) U.S.-born women were roughly 1.4 times more likely to have a preterm infant than foreign-born women, and (c) both groups experienced weathering. This study might positively impact social change by offering an alternative perspective to the reproductive health advantage of foreign-born Black women. This perspective can aid in advancing policy and systems change strategies to address the root causes of racial and ethnic disparities in birth outcomes, advance health equity, and improve maternal health.