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Neighbourhood-level policing as a racialised gendered stressor: multilevel analysis of police stops and preterm birth in Seattle, Washington
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Neighbourhood-level policing as a racialised gendered stressor: multilevel analysis of police stops and preterm birth in Seattle, Washington

Taylor Riley, Jaquelyn L Jahn, Mienah Z Sharif, Daniel A Enquobahrie and Anjum Hajat
Journal of epidemiology and community health (1979)
23 May 2024
PMID: 38782545
url
https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2024-222216View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Health inequalities MATERNAL HEALTH Original research Pregnancy
BackgroundMost studies capturing the health effects of police violence focus on directly impacted individuals, but a burgeoning field of study is capturing the indirect, community-level health effects of policing. Few empirical studies have examined neighbourhood-level policing, a contextual and racialised gendered stressor, in relation to preterm birth risk among Black and other racially minoritised people.MethodsWe spatially linked individual birth records (2017–2019) in Seattle, Washington (n=25 909) with geocoded data on police stops for three exposure windows: year before pregnancy, first and second trimester. We fit race-stratified multilevel modified Poisson regression models predicting preterm birth (<37 gestational weeks) across tertiles of neighbourhood stop rates controlling for individual and neighbourhood-level covariates. For the second trimester exposure window, birth was operationalised as a time-to-event outcome using multilevel Cox proportional hazard models.ResultsNeighbourhood stop rates of Black residents was higher compared with White residents, and Black and Asian pregnant people were exposed to the highest median neighbourhood-level stop rates. Black birthing people living in neighbourhoods with more frequent police stops had increased risk of preterm birth across all exposure windows including the year before pregnancy (adjusted risk ratio (aRR): 1.38, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.85), first trimester (aRR:1.74, 95% CI 1.17 to 2.57) and second trimester (aHR: 1.66, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.42). We found null or inverse associations among Asian, Hispanic and White people.ConclusionOur study adds to the growing evidence documenting associations of higher risk of preterm birth with neighbourhood police stops among Black birthing people. These findings suggest that routine police practices are one aspect of structural racism contributing to racialised perinatal health inequities.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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