sudano: Location Quotient based on Merton (1938) and Sudano et al....
In ndi: Neighborhood Deprivation Indices

sudano

R Documentation

Location Quotient based on Merton (1938) and Sudano et al. (2013)

Description

Compute the aspatial Location Quotient (Sudano) of a selected racial or ethnic subgroup(s) and U.S. geographies.

Usage

sudano(
  geo_large = "county",
  geo_small = "tract",
  year = 2020,
  subgroup,
  omit_NAs = TRUE,
  quiet = FALSE,
  ...
)

Arguments

`geo_large`	Character string specifying the larger geographical unit of the data. The default is counties `geo_large = 'county'`.
`geo_small`	Character string specifying the smaller geographical unit of the data. The default is census tracts `geo_small = 'tract'`.
`year`	Numeric. The year to compute the estimate. The default is 2020, and the years 2009 onward are currently available.
`subgroup`	Character string specifying the racial or ethnic subgroup(s). See Details for available choices.
`omit_NAs`	Logical. If FALSE, will compute index for a larger geographical unit only if all of its smaller geographical units have values. The default is TRUE.
`quiet`	Logical. If TRUE, will display messages about potential missing census information. The default is FALSE.
`...`	Arguments passed to `get_acs` to select state, county, and other arguments for census characteristics

Details

This function will compute the aspatial Location Quotient (LQ) of selected racial or ethnic subgroups and U.S. geographies for a specified geographical extent (e.g., the entire U.S. or a single state) based on Merton (1939) \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.2307/2084686")} and Sudano et al. (2013) \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.09.015")}. This function provides the computation of LQ for any of the U.S. Census Bureau race or ethnicity subgroups (including Hispanic and non-Hispanic individuals).

The function uses the get_acs function to obtain U.S. Census Bureau 5-year American Community Survey characteristics used for the aspatial computation. The yearly estimates are available for 2009 onward when ACS-5 data are available (2010 onward for geo_large = 'cbsa' and 2011 onward for geo_large = 'place', geo_large = 'csa', or geo_large = 'metro') but may be available from other U.S. Census Bureau surveys. The twenty racial or ethnic subgroups (U.S. Census Bureau definitions) are:

B03002_002: not Hispanic or Latino 'NHoL'
B03002_003: not Hispanic or Latino, white alone 'NHoLW'
B03002_004: not Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American alone 'NHoLB'
B03002_005: not Hispanic or Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native alone 'NHoLAIAN'
B03002_006: not Hispanic or Latino, Asian alone 'NHoLA'
B03002_007: not Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 'NHoLNHOPI'
B03002_008: not Hispanic or Latino, Some other race alone 'NHoLSOR'
B03002_009: not Hispanic or Latino, Two or more races 'NHoLTOMR'
B03002_010: not Hispanic or Latino, Two races including Some other race 'NHoLTRiSOR'
B03002_011: not Hispanic or Latino, Two races excluding Some other race, and three or more races 'NHoLTReSOR'
B03002_012: Hispanic or Latino 'HoL'
B03002_013: Hispanic or Latino, white alone 'HoLW'
B03002_014: Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American alone 'HoLB'
B03002_015: Hispanic or Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native alone 'HoLAIAN'
B03002_016: Hispanic or Latino, Asian alone 'HoLA'
B03002_017: Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 'HoLNHOPI'
B03002_018: Hispanic or Latino, Some other race alone 'HoLSOR'
B03002_019: Hispanic or Latino, Two or more races 'HoLTOMR'
B03002_020: Hispanic or Latino, Two races including Some other race 'HoLTRiSOR'
B03002_021: Hispanic or Latino, Two races excluding Some other race, and three or more races 'HoLTReSOR'

Use the internal state and county arguments within the get_acs function to specify geographic extent of the data output.

LQ is some measure of relative racial homogeneity of each smaller geographical units within a larger geographical unit. LQ can range in value from 0 to infinity because it is ratio of two proportions in which the numerator is the proportion of subgroup population in a smaller geographical unit and the denominator is the proportion of subgroup population in its larger geographical unit. For example, a smaller geographical unit with an LQ of 5 means that the proportion of the subgroup population living in the smaller geographical unit is five times the proportion of the subgroup population in its larger geographical unit.

Larger geographical units available include states geo_large = 'state', counties geo_large = 'county', census tracts geo_large = 'tract', census-designated places geo_large = 'place', core-based statistical areas geo_large = 'cbsa', combined statistical areas geo_large = 'csa', and metropolitan divisions geo_large = 'metro'. Smaller geographical units available include, counties geo_small = 'county', census tracts geo_small = 'tract', and census block groups geo_small = 'cbg'. If a larger geographical unit is comprised of only one smaller geographical unit (e.g., a U.S county contains only one census tract), then the LQ value returned is NA. If the larger geographical unit is census-designated places geo_large = 'place', core-based statistical areas geo_large = 'cbsa', combined statistical areas geo_large = 'csa', or metropolitan divisions geo_large = 'metro', only the smaller geographical units completely within a larger geographical unit are considered in the LQ computation (see internal st_within function for more information) and recommend specifying all states within which the interested larger geographical unit are located using the internal state argument to ensure all appropriate smaller geographical units are included in the LQ computation.

Value

An object of class 'list'. This is a named list with the following components:

lq: An object of class 'tbl' for the GEOID, name, and LQ at specified smaller census geographies.
lq_data: An object of class 'tbl' for the raw census values at specified smaller census geographies.
missing: An object of class 'tbl' of the count and proportion of missingness for each census variable used to compute LQ.

References

Merton, RK (1938) Social Structure and Anomie. American Sociological Review, 3(5):672-682. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.2307/2084686")}

Sudano, JJ, Perzynski, A, Wong, DW, Colabianchi, N, Litaker, D (2013) Neighborhood Racial Residential Segregation and Changes in Health or Death Among Older Adults. Health & Place, 19:80-88. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.09.015")}

Examples

## Not run: 
# Wrapped in \dontrun{} because these examples require a Census API key.

  # Location Quotient (a measure of relative homogeneity) 
  ## of Black populations
  ## in census tracts within counties of Georgia, U.S.A. (2020)
  sudano(
    geo_large = 'county',
    geo_small = 'tract',
    state = 'GA',
    year = 2020,
    subgroup = c('NHoLB', 'HoLB')
   )


## End(Not run)

ndi documentation built on Sept. 9, 2025, 5:26 p.m.