“Place, Not Race”: A Focus on Neighborhood as a Risk Factor for Hospitalizations in Patients Receiving Maintenance Hemodialysis

Major metropolitan cities in the United States commonly publish data related to neighborhood racial segregation and social determinants of health. For example, the Boston Public Health Commission consistently reports that Boston neighborhoods with a majority of Black residents have lower rates of educational attainment, higher unemployment rates, and a higher percentage of the population that live below the federal poverty line compared with other neighborhoods of different racial composition.1 These types of reports illuminate an important concept: the distribution of social and economic resources in this country is unequal among racial groups and map closely along neighborhood boundaries.