Online Program

279781
Use of a community-based participatory approach to assess and address children's exposure to environmental hazards in a low-income public housing community


Monday, November 4, 2013

Rania A. Sabty-Daily, REHS, PhD, MPH, College of Health Sciences, Trident University International, Cypress, CA
Nancy L.R. Anderson, RN, PhD, UCLA School of Nursing, Cambria, CA
Evidence shows that low-income minority communities are disproportionately exposed to many environmental hazards. Many of these hazards are associated with negative public health outcomes and result in health disparities. Children receive greater exposures to environmental hazards via air, food, soil and water because of their physiological and behavioral characteristics. This study utilized a community-based participatory approach to assess and address environmental hazards that impacted children's health in a HUD housing development of 660 homes with predominantly Latino residents. This approach involved 1) use of a community advisory board to build linguistically appropriate and culturally sensitive questions for collecting information about environmental hazards in the community, 2) use of focus groups to identify environmental hazards, 3) use of a follow-up focus group to prioritize environmental hazards in the community and formulate action plans to prevent exposure of children to these hazards. Twenty one study participants were enrolled. Data about environmental hazards to which children are exposed in this community were collected in three focus group sessions. A follow-up focus group session was held with participants that had participated in one of the previous focus group sessions. In this session, participants confirmed study results, prioritized environmental hazards of concern and, developed action plans to prevent these hazards. An Educational Forum was conducted to communicate study findings to the entire housing development, to educate the community about the environmental hazards and to present community-developed action plans that may be implemented by community residents to prevent the exposure of children to these hazards.

Learning Areas:

Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Environmental health sciences
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the challenges and benefits of academic-community partnerships in environmental health research Describe the role of a community advisory board in data collection and analysis, when conducting community based participatory research Discuss the use of a community-based participatory approach to assess and address environmental hazards in a community

Keyword(s): Community-Based Partnership, Environmental Health Hazards

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have a PhD in environmental health sciences and a msters in public health. Among my interests is community capacity building and community partnership in research to assess and mitigate environmemntal hazards in vulnerable communities. I was co-principal investigator for this federally funded study that involved a partnership between a Latino public housing community and a research university.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.