The Chicago Community Adult Health Study (CCAHS) consists of four interrelated components that were conducted simultaneously: (1) a survey of adult health on a probability sample of 3105 Chicago adults, including direct physical measurements of their blood pressure and heart rate and of height, weight, waist and hip circumference, and leg length; (2) a biomedical supplement which collected blood and/or saliva samples on a subset of 661 survey respondents; (3) a community survey in which individuals described aspects of the social environment of all survey respondents’ neighborhoods; and (4) a systematic social observation (SSO) of the blocks in which potential survey respondents resided, including a lost letter drop (Milgram et al. 1965) as an unobtrusive measure of neighborhood social capital/sense of responsibility to help others. The latter two extend a community survey and SSO of neighborhoods carried out by PHDCN in 1995. The adult health survey and the community survey were conducted jointly through face-to-face interviews with a stratified, multi-stage probability sample of 3,105 individuals aged 18 and over and living in the city of Chicago, with a response rate of 72% that is about the highest currently attainable in large urban areas. In addition, blood pressure, heart rate, and physical measurements (of height, weight, waist and hips, and leg length) were collected during the survey interview, and blood and saliva samples from 661 respondents or 60% of those doing the survey in the 80 “focal” Neighborhood Clusters (or NCs defined below). SSOs were conducted on 1663 of the 1672 city blocks on which each respondent lived. The CCAHS is the largest of five projects under the NIH-funded Michigan Interdisciplinary Center on Social Inequalities, Mind and Body Mind, one of five Mind-Body Centers funded by NIH in late 1999.
For more information please contact: James House.