Glass examined four ailments: heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attack - essentially a small stroke without permanent effects - and intermittent claudification, a peripheral artery disease that causes decreased blood flow in the legs.
All four illnesses were more common in neighborhoods that ranked highest on the psychosocial hazards scale.
Such conditions evoke significant stress. As associate director of the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute, Dr. Chris Gibbons, who did not participate in the study, runs several health programs in poor neighborhoods in East Baltimore. He said people living in the city's worst neighborhoods deal with "amazing" levels of stress.
"There are so many things beyond the control of these people that affect their health," he said.
For those who live in Baltimore's poorer areas, Glass' analysis was not surprising.
Joseph Lomax has lived in East Baltimore for all of his 42 years. It has been a stressful four decades, he says.
"There's always something you have to be leery of," said Lomax, a thin man with a salt-and-pepper beard and stylish white shoes. "You can't go outside and not be aware. Being unconscious at any point could get you in a dangerous situation."
Lomax, who now lives on Federal Street, was sitting on the stoop of an abandoned building near the corner of Ashland and Chester streets.
Even relaxing on a stoop can get you into trouble, Lomax said ruefully. Sometimes dealers stash drugs in the steps, he said, pointing to a hole in the marble block on which he sat. Police could come by, he said, or the dealer might take offense.
A floor installer and cleaner, Lomax said the neighborhood puts him under nearly constant stress. On the block where he lives, he is surrounded by drug dealing, and he, his wife and three kids hear gunfire every night.
"You get used to it," he said. "But you think about it constantly. You hear gunshots, you automatically duck." He says he gets what relaxation he can from his church.
Has all this affected his health? Lomax didn't know, but he does have high blood pressure.
Robert Goldman, who also lives in East Baltimore, on Monument Street, had a heart attack this spring. He says that his neighborhood is not an easy place to live. He also hears constant shooting, and he lives among abandoned buildings and drug dealing.
"It's a heavy burden," he says.
