TY - GEN A1 - Sauzet, Odile A1 - Zolitschka, Kim Alexandra A1 - Spallek, Jacob A1 - Breckenkamp, Jürgen A1 - Razum, Oliver T1 - An ego-centred approach for the evaluation of health inequalities in urban areas T2 - European Journal of Public Health N2 - Background: Neighbourhood possesses attributes, structural, physical and social, for which pathways to health inequalities could be hypothesized. Hence, neighbourhood is a complex mixture of factors which cannot be simply defined by a delineation on a map, making common definitions of neighbourhood (e.g. administrative borders) problematic. We present a new concept for the evaluation of contextual health inequalities in an urban setting. Methods: An ego-centred approach to neighbourhood effects on health allows to establish to what degree the health outcomes of a person are on average correlated to the health outcomes of his/her neighbours. This approach does not necessitate the definition of what a neighbourhood is, or of its boundaries. Using data from the BaBi birth cohort following up 958 mother-child pairs in Bielefeld/Germany we illustrate how the method provides information about the spatial structure of a possible association between unmeasured neighbourhood factors and birthweight. Spatially correlated birthweight indicates a neighbourhood effect on maternal health. Results: A parametric model of the correlation structure gives two indicators: a distance after which health outcomes are no longer correlated (practical range), and the strength of correlation (RSV). We modelled birthweight directly and residuals after controlling for (spatially correlated) covariates. After adjusting for the mother’s demographics and neighbourhood characteristics, birthweights remained spatially correlated with RSV of 11% and a practical range of 128 m. Conclusions: Modelling the spatial correlation of a health outcome provides a measure of the degree of health correlation, thus offering new evidence on the production of health inequalities while incorporating current modelling approaches. Moreover, it measures heterogeneity in a city. This could be used as an indicator for policy makers or town planners to identify areas in need of socioeconomic investment. KW - health inequalities KW - urban KW - birth weight KW - child KW - demography KW - ego KW - Germany KW - socioeconomic factors KW - health disparity KW - towns KW - maternal health Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckz186.243 SN - 1101-1262 SN - 1464-360X VL - 29 IS - 4 ER -