Bryce Hruska (PHP) co-I, Examining Neighborhood Profiles Defined by Place-based Community Features and their Relationships with Firearm Violence Disparities, NIH. 9/25/23-5/31/24
Black Americans are over six times more likely to experience an assault-related firearm injury compared to White Americans. The project will utilize latent profile analysis–a variable classification technique–to examine place-based characteristics that contribute to this elevated exposure. We will accomplish this goal by: 1) Assessing how residential segregation, vacant and abandoned properties, neighborhood walkability, and green space access combine to form distinct neighborhood profiles; and 2) Determining how different neighborhood profiles characterized by unique combinations of these place-based community features display different levels of firearm violence. Collectively, these aims will advance our overall objective to further precision public health efforts that more effectively reduce Black Americans’ firearm violence exposure. This will be achieved by informing policy and prevention strategies that are tailored to the pattern of place-based features defining those neighborhoods that confer the greatest gun violence exposure risk.