Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of black Americans: a population-based, quasi-experimental study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Police kill more than 300 black Americans-at least a quarter of them unarmed-each year in the USA. These events might have spillover effects on the mental health of people not directly affected.

Methods

In this population-based, quasi-experimental study, we combined novel data on police killings with individual-level data from the nationally representative 2013-15 US Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to estimate the causal impact of police killings of unarmed black Americans on self-reported mental health of other black American adults in the US general population. The primary exposure was the number of police killings of unarmed black Americans occurring in the 3 months prior to the BRFSS interview within the same state. The primary outcome was t

SUBMITTER: Bor J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6376989 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature