he Effects of a Multi-Component After-School Wellness Program on Attitudes and Beliefs Towards Healthy Habits of Elementary Students

PURPOSE: Characteristics of a person’s neighborhood environment have been shown to contribute to health issues, including cardiovascular disease. However, studies evaluating these associations have not been completed in Kent County, MI. SUBJECTS: There were 4,878 participants of the VoiceKent survey and were a mean age of 43 and the majority of participants were female (70.8%) and white (85.7%), with a racial/ethnic distribution that approximately reflects the population of Kent County. METHODS: Safety, barriers to health care, racism, and access to nutritious foods are among the characteristics analyzed in this project utilizing responses from the 2017 VoiceKent community survey. Individualized z-scores were calculated for each neighborhood characteristic based on zip code of residence. The z-scores for each individual question were summed to create a composite score representing neighborhood disadvantage, which was analyzed with respondents’ cardiovascular disease status; higher scores indicate more neighborhood disadvantage. ANALYSES: Logistic regression was run to evaluate the association between neighborhood composite score and cardiovascular diseases. RESULTS: Contrary to the hypothesis, as well as previous literature, neighborhoods were found to have a significant association with cardiovascular disease (p = 0.771). CONCLUSIONS: This was the first study to evaluate this association in Kent County. Increasing the number of survey respondents and improving upon their geographic variability would be included in steps for improving and possibly validating these results. Results indicate that higher neighborhood disadvantage could lead to higher rates of cardiovascular disease and public health interventions should focus on reducing disparities in health care access and nutritious food access, which could prevent excess cardiovascular disease incidence