Built environment exposures of adults in the moving to opportunity experiment

Abstract

This article describes environmental exposures of adult participants in the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) for Fair Housing experiment over a four to seven year period from baseline to the interim evaluation. The MTO experiment randomized participants living in public housing or private assisted housing at baseline into experimental and control groups and provided a housing voucher for experimental group participants to move to neighbourhoods with less than 10% of the population below the poverty line. However, few studies have examined how this move affected exposures to health promoting environments. We used data on residential locations of MTO participants and archival data on the built and food environment to construct environmental exposure variables. MTO participants in the experimental and Section 8 groups lived in neighbourhoods with higher food prices, less high intensity development and more open space relative to the control group. The findings suggest that housing policies can have potential health consequences by altering health-related environmental exposures.

Keywords:

• Built environment
• poverty
• Moving to Opportunity
• USA
• neighborhoods
• environmental exposures

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. provides commercially available data on businesses, including business name, address, and industry classification codes. These codes were used to classify businesses as supermarkets, fast food restaurants or commercial physical activity/recreation centres.

2 Euclidean buffers were used, which are created by drawing a circle around a specific point (in this study, the point is the centre of the participant's census block group), and measuring exposures within the buffer area. The buffer radius is the distance from the centre of the buffer to the circle boundary.

3 The inverse probability of sampling weight is a person-level weight calculated as the product of three weights adjusting for (1) changes in the randomization ratio for families assigned by the end of 1997, (2) the inverse probability of selection for the survey or testing in the full sample phase, and (3) selection into the subsample of hard-to-reach families (Orr et al., 2003).

4 Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are U.S. federal assistance programs for low-income families.

Additional information

Funding

The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01CA132896 supported research reported in this publication in part. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Funders of the interim evaluation of MTO included the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health (R01-HD40404 and R01-HD40444), National Science Foundation (SBE-9876337 and BCS-0091854), Russell Sage Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and from NICHD (5P30-HD32030 for the Office of Population Research) and the Princeton Industrial Relations Section, the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, the Princeton Center for Health and Wellbeing, and the National Bureau of Economic Research. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of HUD or the U.S. Government.

Notes on contributors

Cathy L. Antonakos

Cathy L. Antonakos is a Research Area Specialist Senior in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan.

Claudia J. Coulton is Distinguished University Professor and the Lillian F. Harris Professor, and Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Robert Kaestner is Research Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

Mickey Lauria is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University.

Dwayne E. Porter is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Natalie Colabianchi is Associate Professor and Chair of the Applied Exercise Science program in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, and Research Associate Professor in the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Claudia J. Coulton

Cathy L. Antonakos is a Research Area Specialist Senior in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan.

Claudia J. Coulton is Distinguished University Professor and the Lillian F. Harris Professor, and Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Robert Kaestner is Research Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

Mickey Lauria is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University.

Dwayne E. Porter is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Natalie Colabianchi is Associate Professor and Chair of the Applied Exercise Science program in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, and Research Associate Professor in the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Robert Kaestner

Cathy L. Antonakos is a Research Area Specialist Senior in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan.

Claudia J. Coulton is Distinguished University Professor and the Lillian F. Harris Professor, and Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Robert Kaestner is Research Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

Mickey Lauria is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University.

Dwayne E. Porter is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Natalie Colabianchi is Associate Professor and Chair of the Applied Exercise Science program in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, and Research Associate Professor in the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Mickey Lauria

Cathy L. Antonakos is a Research Area Specialist Senior in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan.

Claudia J. Coulton is Distinguished University Professor and the Lillian F. Harris Professor, and Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Robert Kaestner is Research Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

Mickey Lauria is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University.

Dwayne E. Porter is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Natalie Colabianchi is Associate Professor and Chair of the Applied Exercise Science program in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, and Research Associate Professor in the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Dwayne E. Porter

Cathy L. Antonakos is a Research Area Specialist Senior in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan.

Claudia J. Coulton is Distinguished University Professor and the Lillian F. Harris Professor, and Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Robert Kaestner is Research Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

Mickey Lauria is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University.

Dwayne E. Porter is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Natalie Colabianchi is Associate Professor and Chair of the Applied Exercise Science program in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, and Research Associate Professor in the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Natalie Colabianchi

Cathy L. Antonakos is a Research Area Specialist Senior in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan.

Claudia J. Coulton is Distinguished University Professor and the Lillian F. Harris Professor, and Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

Robert Kaestner is Research Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.

Mickey Lauria is Professor of City and Regional Planning and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University.

Dwayne E. Porter is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.

Natalie Colabianchi is Associate Professor and Chair of the Applied Exercise Science program in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, and Research Associate Professor in the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.