Healthy homes, healthy seniors: Baseline results

Purpose: The overarching purpose of the HUD funded “Health Homes, Health Seniors” project was to develop new methods to detect and control housing-related health and safety hazards in the households of the elderly. Study Questions: What is an easy to conduct method of hazard identification in this context? How can we remediate household hazards in an efficient and low cost manner? What is the impact of environmental household hazards on the health and well- being of seniors? Methods: The study was conducted in Washington Heights, NYC. Using a PAR paradigm for all aspects of this research, we developed a new photo illustrated household safety checklist (in Spanish and English) as an aid to conduct visual inspections, and a new survey for assessing participants' health status, history of household-related injuries, quality of life, etc. Public health students served as paid field research assistants for this project. A pre/post (OXO) design was utilized, with hazard remediation as the intervention. Three months later, collection of hazard and elderly participant data was repeated and a follow-up safety survey was also performed. In cases where hazard remediation was beyond the scope of this project, work orders were placed with building management. Results: There were 105 participants with a 63% follow-up rate. At baseline, household hazards were prevalent. The most commonly observed hazards were vermin, followed by falls and fire safety hazards. Participants were generally satisfied with their living conditions, generally felt safe, and had moderate health problems. In a 3mo period prior to baseline, injuries were common; 102 participants reported 118 burns and 22 participants reported 42 falls. Baseline data and correlates with household hazards will be reported. Conclusion: Household hazards present a risk to elderly householders. Relatively inexpensive interventions can be implemented to reduce risk in this setting.