PHRESH: Pittsburgh Hill/Homewood Research on Eating, Shopping & Health

Pittsburgh Hill/Homewood Research on Eating, Shopping & Health (PHRESH) is a five-year study of the Hill District and Homewood communities. PHRESH will explore food choices, food availability, health and well-being, and other issues important to these communities.

We know that the things people eat affect their health. We also know that food choices depend on what people like, how much it costs, convenience, and other factors. But, we are not sure how characteristics of neighborhoods — things like access to fresh fruits, vegetables and meats — make neighborhoods and residents more or less healthy.

PHRESH is the largest study ever in the United States to try to answer these questions. It will provide valuable information on issues that are important to the Homewood and Hill District residents and community.

To do this, PHRESH will look at what the Hill and Homewood are like now, and whether changes occur over time in these areas:

• Availability of healthy food choices in the neighborhood
• Types of food stores in the neighborhood
• Healthy foods within food stores
• Cost of healthy and unhealthy food options
• Transportation and neighborhood safety
• Neighborhood green spaces and walking places
• Resident food shopping behaviors
• Resident opinions about healthy eating, and aspects of the neighborhood, such as transportation and safety
• Resident health and well-being

PHRESH is inviting people who live in Homewood and the Hill District to participate in an interview about these critical issues. A total of 1,650 households will be invited to participate starting in April of 2011. If you are one of the people invited, you will be asked to complete an interview now and an interview in 2013.

• Households invited to participate will be randomly chosen
• A PHRESH interviewer will come to your door to ask you to participate
• You can talk with the interviewer at your home or meet later in a public place

PHRESH participants will receive $40 in gift cards for completing 2 interviews. The first interview will take about 90 minutes. A second interview will be conducted over the phone 1 to 2 weeks later and will take about take 30 minutes.

As part of the PHRESH project, we are visiting every place that sells food – such as restaurants and convenience stores – in Homewood and the Hill District to observe the types, quality and prices of food they sell. It is very important we collect this information so that we can understand what foods are available in the Hill District and Homewood.

If you are the owner or manager of a place that sells food in the Hill District or Homewood, you will receive a letter inviting you to participate in PHRESH. We are asking that you allow trained PHRESH data collectors to enter your store or restaurant to observe and record food types, quality and pricing. Data collectors will not ask any questions of you or your staff. PHRESH is not evaluating you, your staff, or your store or restaurant --we want to know about all the foods available in the neighborhood, not about your particular store or restaurant. We will not share the information we collect with anyone outside the project team.

The observation will take about 30 minutes, and may take less time.

The PHRESH Field Office is located at the Hill House Association, 1 Hope Square, Room 304, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. PHRESH staff at this office includes the Field Coordinator, La’Vette Wagner, and 10-15 interviewers. These staff members can be reached at the PHRESH Field Office at 412.281.4600 or lmwagner@rand.org.

What we learn in PHRESH will be directly affected by who participates. We need everyone’s opinion to really understand the neighborhood. If we work together, PHRESH findings may be useful for bringing resources to neighborhoods locally and across the country. In addition to the issues of food availability and health changes, the PHRESH community partners are interested in understanding other issues that are important to their communities. These issues include information that we hope will improve residents’ lives.