Comparison of Segregation Indexes and Residential Segregation for Mortality Analysis

Residential racial and economic segregation has been linked to significant disparities in health outcomes, including increased risks for major causes of death. Although the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE) is widely recognized for its robust and comprehensive measure of residential segregation, several other indices, such as the Dissimilarity Index, the Interaction Index, and the Isolation Index, are also commonly employed in segregation studies. However, there is limited research that systematically compares these measures in the context of mortality analysis. This paper seeks to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of various segregation indexes in analyzing the impact of residential segregation on health disparities reflected in mortality rates. Through a detailed analysis of quintiles of ICE and other segregation indexes, we demonstrate that ICE provides a more nuanced and reliable measure for understanding the relationship between segregation and mortality outcomes. These findings underscore the importance of selecting appropriate segregation indexes in public health research and suggest that ICE may be the most effective tool among these residential racial and economic segregations for capturing the complexities of residential segregation's influence on health disparities.