Assessing Barriers and Facilitators to Healthy Living in a Low-Income Community: Perceptions of the Health Resource Environment in South Los Angeles

Qualitative data can improve our understanding of the relationship between the built environment and health behaviors, especially the psycho-social or ecological barriers that may prevent residents from utilizing existing resources.

The CDC awarded Community Health Councils (CHC) a three-year REACH Demonstration Project grant to improve health conditions among high risk residents in South Los Angeles.  Three high schools with School-Based Health Centers were selected as study sites.

Focus groups explored prevailing beliefs, attitudes, and experiences among adults and adolescents about their nutritional, recreational, and health care resource environments.  Quantitative data was collected on participants’ health behaviors and socio-demographic characteristics.

Four focus groups with adolescents (n=28) and eight with adults (n=47) were conducted.  75% of participants were female; 36% identified as Black/African-American and 57% as Hispanic/Latino. Findings suggest similar barriers to healthy eating exist across South LA including a lack of healthy food options and high availability of unhealthy food. Adolescents provided recommendations to improve and increase consumption of school lunches. Safety was a key barrier to mobility, yet differences in the type of concerns were identified. As expected, adolescents exhibited a higher level of awareness of school health resources, while adults expressed a high level of interest in shared use for physical activity.

Policies and plans aimed at improving neighborhood resources should incorporate community members’ perspectives. The findings suggest school sites can be leveraged as a key environment for health promotion resources and activities for adolescents and adults in underserved communities, especially shared use policies.