The associations of objective and perceived neighborhood disadvantage with stress among pregnant black women

Background: Neighborhood disadvantage may impact risk of preterm birth through stress. Few studies have examined how neighborhood disadvantage relates to stress during pregnancy, especially for Black women.

Methods: Secondary data analysis of 572 women in a prospective cohort in Detroit, MI and Columbus, OH. Participants completed questionnaires including the ROSS Neighborhood Disorder Scale, the crime subscale of the Perceived Neighborhood Scale (PNS), and the Perceived Stress Scale. An objective neighborhood disadvantage index (NDI) was created using principal components analysis after geocoding residential addresses and linking to Census data.

Results: All models used logistic regression. Adjusted for maternal age and annual household income, perceived stress was positively associated with perceived neighborhood disorder (p < .01). In a separate model, perceived neighborhood crime was positively associated with perceived neighborhood disorder (p = .005). In a joint model adjusted for age and income, the association of disorder with stress was similar in magnitude (p < .01) but the association between crime and stress weakened. The NDI was not associated with perceived stress before or after adjustment for confounders.

Conclusions: Perceived neighborhood disadvantage may capture a different dimension than objective neighborhood disadvantage. Future studies should test stress as a pathway by which neighborhood environment increases risk of preterm birth.