The Urban Health Study
In the spring of 2002, the CRPH implemented the Urban Health Study (UHS) whose main objectives were to provide policy-relevant analysis of the health consequences of population change, economic impoverishment, and social capital and, for intervention purposes, to identify social mechanisms that affect health and well-being. This study was designed to examine the health of families and, in particular, of adolescents, women and older adults in rapidly changing urban neighborhoods around the capital city, Beirut, and to consequently respond to the emerging issues by planning for community-based intervention studies.
Three communities were selected: Hay el Sellom and Burj el Barajneh Camp, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Nabaa, located in the eastern suburb. The neighborhoods were selected on a variety of practical and substantive grounds: dense war-displaced populations, prevailing poverty, rural-urban mobility, and lack of basic infrastructure. The study was unique as it engaged the communities in the research process from the start; it combined science and action by planning for interventions to create a change; and it involved an inter (multi)-disciplinary team of researchers who combined both quantitative and qualitative approaches to examine the social context of health. The study consisted of three phases.
Phase I A household survey was conducted in 2002, generating data about demographics, education, health, labor force, migration, and other household information such as income, and general housing conditions. A two-stage cluster sample of 3,300 households in all three communities was selected using area drawings developed specifically for this survey. The target population consisted of those individuals living in housing units within the boundaries of the community. A separate module in this household survey examined the gender division of domestic labor and involvement in paid work, constituting the Women, Work and Health component of the UHS.
Phase 2 Following the main household survey, three separate surveys were undertaken in 2003. All individuals between the ages of 13 and 19 years (inclusive), were interviewed on a new set of questions, constituting the Youth component of the UHS.View the adolescent health questionnaire here.The Women and Reproductive Health component developed a separate questionnaire on reproductive health and child health and surveyed ever-married women aged 15 to 59 years old inclusively. All individuals, who were 60 years old and above, were also interviewed by another questionnaire, constituting the Older Adults component of the UHS. All three surveys included 66 items on social capital and women’s autonomy. These comprised: civic engagement, trust, community attachment, safety/victimization, reciprocity, social networks, social support, and cultural capital.
Phase 3
This third phase which began in January 2005 consisted of the intervention studies. This program of intervention research on the health and well-being of youth and married women builds on the findings of the earlier phases. The overarching goal in this phase was to undertake community-based intervention studies on priority health issues in the poor suburbs of Beirut and led to the establishment of the
Youth Working Group and the
Women's Reproductive Health Working Group.