Latino males in Hartford and New Haven’s poor neighborhoods are less healthy and at a greater risk of being murdered than residents just a few blocks away, according to recent research.
High poverty, crime and unemployment rates combined with poor education, unfit housing and crumbling neighborhoods add up to a low life expectancy and health outcomes, especially among African Americans and Hispanics, according to “Healthy Hartford,” published by the Hartford Department of Health and Human Services.
The report studied Hartford’s 17 neighborhoods and found that people in Northeast and Upper Albany who weren’t killed still lived fewer years. High infant death rates contributed to low life expectancy as well. Northeast residents also are at greater risk for developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes and infectious diseases, according to a recent CT Health Investigative Team (C-HIT) article on the report. West End and Parkville residents in Hartford are more likely to suffer from respiratory illness, while the Frog Hollow and Clay-Arsenal neighborhoods are the poorest.
In New Haven, employment and education were poor, with young African American and Latino men living in a concentrated area. Assaults were the top cause of death for men ages 15 to 39, making up 38 percent of the deaths among African American and Latino males in this age group.
Three-quarters of all violent crimes happened in 20 percent of the city’s area, including sections of Dixwell, Newhallville, Wooster Square/Mill River and portions of downtown, Fair Haven and the Hill.
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