Healthy Homes Technical Study

Evaluating the Long-Term Effectiveness of Healthy Homes Interventions

The study has two major interrelated objectives:

(1) Determining the effectiveness and longevity of healthy homes interventions and education for reducing unintentional injuries and fires resulting from housing-related hazards;

 (2) Determining the barriers and incentives affecting future use of these cost-effective strategies.

The target population is the 2,985 low-income households that participated in SERI’s HUD OLHCHH Healthy Homes Production grant. Each household received a home visit that included a home assessment utilizing the SERI Heathy Homes Rating System app developed by SERI President Ann Marie Wolf, a report of the results, smoke alarms and an educational packet discussing methods to make their home healthier. Of these homes, over 1,000 also received construction interventions for unintentional injuries and fires. All homes were assessed and received interventions from 2011-2014, giving a minimum time of eight years between interventions and the follow-up assessment and survey proposed in this study. After all interventions were completed, SERI conducted a follow-up visit and a post-intervention home assessment with the SERI HHRS app. Data for all targeted homes include pre- and post-intervention scores for each of the 29 hazards assessed, detailed pre- and post-housing conditions and costs of interventions.

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