Background

1. Geographic Access to Inpatient Alcohol Treatment Facilities in a Large Urban Context. A Case Study in Los Angeles County Paul Robinson (1), Norma Guzman-Becerra (1), (1), Jerry O Jacobson (1,2), Ricky N. Bluthenthal (1,3) (1) Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, (2) UCLA, (3)RAND Corporation • Background • Do African Americans and other minorities have equity when it comes to geographic access to residential treatment facilities? • Objective • To determine whether racial/ethnic groups in Los Angeles county have the same levels of geographic access to residential treatment facilities, and how community characteristics impact these access levels. • Research Questions • What are the relationships between geographic accessibility to residential treatment, racial and /ethnic population centers, and other zip code socioeconomic characteristics? • Methods • Population weighted accessibility surfaces for each of four racial/ethnic groups (Black, White, Hispanic, Asian ) were created based on proximity of each ethnic group population centroid and capacity at each facility. • An OLS regression model with a correction for the fixed effect of spatial autocorrelation was created for each race specific accessibility measure. The model included relevant community characteristics, including the number of liquor stores per roadway mile in zip code • Summary • Total African American population, Percent White, and Percent Hispanic were significantly (.10) associated with poorer geographic access to residential treatment slots even after spaatial . • Percent poverty, Percent Unemployed and Liquor Stores per Roadway Mile were significantly associated with poorer geographic access to residential treatment.. • Conclusions • The more total African Americans living In a zip code the poorer the geographic access to residential treatment, despite the fact that these treatment facilities are clustered in the urban parts of the county. High percentage white (suburban) and high percent Latino areas also had poorer access. • Poverty, unemployment and alcohol saturation are all positively associated with residential treatment. • Acknowledgements • NIAAA grant # R21AA013813 • RCMI, Charles R. Drew University • NCRR G12RR0302618 • ISAP Post-doctoral Fellowship Pprogram Table One- OLS regression results. No significance- Percent Black, White Population, Asian Population, Median Household Income, Percent Spanish Speaking, Per Capita Income, Liquor Stores per 1000 persons.