Suburbanization of Poverty and Its Impact on Community Health and Community Health Systems.

The vision for my dissertation is to understand the unseen epidemic related to demographic transition taking place in suburban American and its impact on the health of the community and the health care delivery system. This epidemic is related to increasing migration from urban to suburban communities of low socio economic status and minority populations with significant health disparities. The effects of these disparities can be seen at both individual and population levels. Additionally, this demographic challenge have an impact on the health delivery system and its lack of infrastructure to serve these populations.

The primary hypothesis underlying this dissertation is that significant lack of access to suburban health services resources and substantial health needs among low income suburban residents. This creates a significant burden on the health care system to provide care for a financially fragile population that otherwise have limited or no access to needed treatment. The secondary hypothesis is that lack of access to care results in a change in health status for outlying suburban counties affected most by the changing demographics.

It is important to study and document this demographic change in my local community and bring care to this population. This study will provide an assessment of current “avenues of care” for suburban low income individuals, the service burden and financial costs associated with out-of-county services for city hospital inpatient and outpatient facilities, changes in community health status indicators and implications for the future of regional health care for the greater. The development of a local model can be applied to national and international migration and demographic shifts to be better able to build a health care system that is flexible to changing demography and protect the global population from unseen epidemics.