Changing the housing environment to reduce obesity in public housing residents: a cluster randomized trial

BACKGROUND: Public housing residents face significant social, economic, and physical barriers to the practice of health behaviors for prevention of chronic disease. Research shows that public housing residents are more likely to report higher rates of obesity, current smoking, disability, and insufficient physical activity compared to individuals not living in public housing. Because these behaviors and conditions may be shaped by the built and social environments in which they live, we conducted a study to test an environmental level diet and physical activity intervention targeting obesity among urban public housing developments. METHODS: This study was a cluster randomized controlled trial of public housing developments, the unit of analysis and randomization. A total of 10 public housing developments were recruited and subsequently randomized to either receive the intervention package or to serve as comparison sites. The year-long intervention included components to change the dietary and physical activity-related environments of the developments. Surveys at baseline and one-year follow-up provided data on changes in behaviors and weight from participants in both intervention and control developments. RESULTS: Intervention participants significantly changed their eating and activity behaviors and body weight from baseline to one-year follow-up (p’s < .05) while comparison participants reported no significant changes in any study variable. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide initial support for the idea that interventions targeting the environment of public housing developments can assist residents to change unhealthy behaviors and can possibly reduce the high levels of chronic disease among public housing residents. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-5777-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.