The Healthy Community Neighborhood Initiative: Rationale and Design

Brown AF, Morris DM, Kahn KL, Sankaré IC, King KM, Vargas R, Lucas-Wright A, Jones LF, Flowers A, Jones FU, Bross R, Banner D, Del Pino HE, Pitts OL, Zhang L, Porter C, Madrigal SK, Vassar SD, Vangala S, Liang LJ, Martinez AB, Norris KC. The Healthy Community Neighborhood Initiative: Rationale and Design. Ethn Dis. 2016 Jan 21;26(1):123-32. Available at: https://www.ethndis.org/edonline/index.php/ethndis/article/view/301

DESIGN:

A community-partnered participatory research project.

SETTING:

A low-income, biethnic African American and Latino neighborhood in South Los Angeles.

PARTICIPANTS:

Adult community residents aged >18 years.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Household survey and clinical data collection; neighborhood characteristics; neighborhood observations; and community resources asset mapping.

RESULTS:

We enrolled 206 participants (90% of those eligible), of whom 205 completed the household interview and examination, and 199 provided laboratory samples. Among enrollees, 82 (40%) were aged >50 years and participated in functional status measurement. We completed neighborhood observations on 93 street segments; an average of 2.2 (SD=1.6) study participants resided on each street segment observed. The community asset map identified 290 resources summarized in a Community Resource Guide given to all participants.

CONCLUSIONS:

The HCNI community-academic partnership has built a framework to assess and document the individual, social, and community factors that may influence clinical and social outcomes in a community at high-risk for preventable chronic disease. Our project suggests that a community collaborative can use culturally and scientifically sound strategies to identify community-centered health and social needs. Additional work is needed to understand strategies for developing and implementing interventions to mitigate these disparities.