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

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.