Understanding health and health disparities of hard to reach populations living in apartment complexes

The objective of this poster presentation is to discuss methods and results of collecting data on hard to reach populations living in apartment complexes. The goal of this follow-up study is to examine the environmental and social factors that influence health behaviors of hard to reach populations living in apartments that are either locked or have restricted access. The original study, called Taking Neighborhood Health to Heart, used a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) process to engage the community. It was launched in 2006 to study the same health issues for households in 5 Denver neighborhoods. Taking Neighborhood Health to Heart surveyed 950 residents living in the 5 neighborhoods by going door-to door recruiting people to participate in a phone survey. During the original study, we were unsuccessful in getting access to many apartment complexes, causing residents in apartments to be underrepresented in our data. Realizing that some of the neighborhoods have a large number of residents living in apartments, the follow-up study specifically reaches this population. To date, we have surveyed 120 residents living in apartments – we are quickly nearing our target of 220 residents by April 2010. We worked with apartment managers and used a door-to-door method to conduct 30-minute surveys inside the participants' apartment units. We believe this method of data collection yields higher response rates and more accurate results especially for hard to reach populations. Conducting the surveys face-to-face creates a greater level of comfort and interest in the project among residents and managers.