Cohen DA, Ghosh-Dastidar B, Bluthenthal R, Scribner R, Farley TA, Robinson P, Scott M, Miu A, Kerndt P; International Conference on AIDS (15th : 2004 : Bangkok, Thailand).

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. D12942.

RAND, Santa Monica, United States

Background: In the 1992 Civil Unrest in Los Angeles over $1 billion in property damage occurred and 270 alcohol outlets surrendered their licenses due to arson and vandalism. Prior studies suggest that gonorrhea is associated both with alcohol outlets and deteriorated neighborhoods. However, these studies have all been cross sectional so causality cannot be established. The 1992 Civil Unrest provides a natural experiment in which to test whether these associations hold up over time. Methods: We geocoded all reported gonorrhea cases from 1988-2000 in LA County and the addresses of all alcohol outlets licensed annually from the California Alcohol Beverage Control Agency between 1991 and 2000. We also identified alcohol licenses that were surrendered in May, 1992. We geocoded all damaged properties reported to the State Insurance Commission as a result of the riots. We calculated age-sex adjusted gonorrhea rates which we modeled as the outcome in OLS regression models and linear growth models. In the growth models, we looked at the effects of offsale outlet density controlling for riot damage, offsale licenses surrendered, SES, baseline gonorrhea rate, and time-varying racial and demographic composition. Results: We explained about 94% of the residual variance with the linear growth model and the model fit was good. A unit decrease in the number of alcohol outlets per mile of roadway was associated with 11 fewer gonorrhea cases per 100,000 (p<.01). In the tracts with offsale licenses surrendered, there were fewer gonorrhea cases (p<.01) The mean number of outlets is 5.4; each additional outlet closure represents 24 fewer gonorrhea cases per 100,000. Conclusions: Neighborhood physical conditions and alcohol outlets appear to have a significant effect on gonorrhea rates. The findings suggest that efforts to control sexually transmitted diseases, including gonorrhea and HIV, should address contextual factors that can facilitate high-risk behaviors and disease transmission.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• California
• Firesetting Behavior
• Gonorrhea
• Linear Models
• Los Angeles
• Residence Characteristics
• Riots

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0034225

UI: 102278441

From Meeting Abstracts