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Categorizing community type for epidemiologic evaluation of community factors and chronic disease across the United States
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Categorizing community type for epidemiologic evaluation of community factors and chronic disease across the United States

Tara P. McAlexander, Yasemin Algur, Brian S. Schwartz, Pasquale E. Rummo, David C. Lee, Karen R. Siegel, Victoria Ryan, Nora L. Lee, Gargya Malla and Leslie A. McClure
Social sciences & humanities open, v 5(1), 100250
2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2022.100250
PMID: 35369036
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2022.100250View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0,  Open

Abstract

Census tract Community type Neighborhood Rurality Urbanicity
Existing classifications of community type do not differentiate urban cores from surrounding non-rural areas, an important distinction for analyses of community features and their impact on health. Inappropriately classified community types can introduce serious methodologic flaws in epidemiologic studies and invalid inferences from findings. To address this, we evaluate a modification of the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Urban Commuting Area codes at the census tract, propose a four-level categorization of community type, and compare this with existing classifications for epidemiologic analyses. Compared to existing classifications, our method resulted in clearer geographic delineations of community types within urban areas. •Epidemiology studies of place-based factors that encompass a variety of community types are prone to methodological challenges.•Stratification by appropriate definitions of community type can mitigate these challenges.•We demonstrate a method for categorizing community type at the census tract level in the United States.•Compared to previously published methods, our new modification better differentiates urban cores from surrounding suburban and non-rural areas.

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17 citations in Scopus

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