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Emergency Department visits for depression following police killings of unarmed African Americans

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  • Das, Abhery
  • Singh, Parvati
  • Kulkarni, Anju K.
  • Bruckner, Tim A.

Abstract

Previous literature on racism and adverse mental health largely focuses on individual-level exposures. We investigate whether and to what extent structural racism, as measured by police killings of unarmed African Americans, affect a severe and acute mental health outcome among African Americans: depression-related Emergency Department (ED) visits. We used police killings of unarmed African Americans as our exposure and depression-related ED visits (per 100,000 population) as our outcome. We examined the relation across 75 counties from five US states between 2013 and 2015 (2700 county-months). Linear fixed effect analyses controlled for time-invariant county-factors as well as the number of hospitals and arrests for violent crimes (per 100,000 population). Police killings of unarmed African Americans correspond with an 11% increase in ED visits per 100,000 population related to depression among African Americans in the concurrent month and three months following the exposure (p < 0.05). Researchers and policymakers may want to consider prevention efforts to reduce racial bias in policing and implement surveillance of fatal police encounters. These encounters, moreover, may worsen mental health and help-seeking in the ED among African Americans not directly connected to the encounter.

Suggested Citation

  • Das, Abhery & Singh, Parvati & Kulkarni, Anju K. & Bruckner, Tim A., 2021. "Emergency Department visits for depression following police killings of unarmed African Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:269:y:2021:i:c:s0277953620307802
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113561
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christian Dustmann & Francesco Fasani, 2016. "The Effect of Local Area Crime on Mental Health," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(593), pages 978-1017, June.
    2. Stockdale, Susan E. & Wells, Kenneth B. & Tang, Lingqi & Belin, Thomas R. & Zhang, Lily & Sherbourne, Cathy D., 2007. "The importance of social context: Neighborhood stressors, stress-buffering mechanisms, and alcohol, drug, and mental health disorders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1867-1881, November.
    3. Jones, C.P., 2000. "Levels of racism: A theoretic framework and a gardener's tale," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(8), pages 1212-1215.
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Chris Sampson’s journal round-up for 25th January 2021
      by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2021-01-25 12:01:17

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    Cited by:

    1. Kyriopoulos, Ilias & Vandoros, Sotiris & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2022. "Police killings and suicide among Black Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    2. Ameen, Khadijah & Dsouza, Nishita & Flores, Yesnely & Rao, Nikhil & Talwar-Hebert, Maya & Tan, Michelle & Waltz, Zoe, 2026. "Population health and the carceral continuum: A narrative review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 388(C).

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