Public Use Data (2008-10) on Neighborhood Effects on Obesity and Diabetes Among Low-Income Adults from the All Five Sites of the Moving to Opportunity Experiment

Nearly 9 million Americans live in extreme-poverty neighborhoods, places that also tend to be racially segregated and dangerous. Yet, the effects on the well-being of residents of moving out of such communities into less distressed areas remain uncertain. Moving to Opportunity (MTO) is a randomized housing experiment administered by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development that gave low-income families living in high-poverty areas in five cities the chance to move to lower-poverty areas. Families were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) the low-poverty voucher (LPV) group (also called the experimental group) received Section 8 rental assistance certificates or vouchers that they could use only in census tracts with 1990 poverty rates below 10 percent. The families received mobility counseling and help in leasing a new unit. One year after relocating, families could use their voucher to move again if they wished, without any special constraints on location; (2) the traditional voucher (TRV) group (also called the Section 8 group) received regular Section 8 certificates or vouchers that they could use anywhere; these families received no special mobility counseling; (3) the control group received no certificates or vouchers through MTO, but continued to be eligible for project-based housing assistance and whatever other social programs and services to which they would otherwise be entitled. Families were tracked from baseline (1994-1998) through the long-term evaluation survey fielding period (2008-2010) with the purpose of determining the effects of "neighborhood" on participating families. This data collection includes data from the 3,273 adult interviews completed as part of the MTO long-term evaluation. Using data from the long-term evaluation, the associated article reports that moving from a high-poverty to lower-poverty neighborhood was associated in the long-term (10 to 15 years) with modest, but potentially important, reductions in the prevalence of extreme obesity and diabetes. The data contain all outcomes and mediators analyzed for the associated article (with the exception of a few mediator variables from the interim MTO evaluation) as well as a variety of demographic and other baseline measures that were controlled for in the analysis.

近九百万美国人居住在极度贫困的社区中，这些社区往往存在种族隔离和危险。然而，居民从此类社区迁出至较为宁静的地区对福祉的影响仍不明确。‘机会迁移’（Moving to Opportunity，简称MTO）是美国住房和城市发展部实施的一项随机住房实验，该实验为居住在五个城市高贫困地区的低收入家庭提供了迁往低贫困地区的可能性。这些家庭被随机分配到三个组别之一：（1）低贫困券（LPV）组（亦称为实验组）获得了仅能在1990年贫困率低于10%的普查区使用的第8章租赁援助证书或券，这些家庭接受了流动性咨询和租赁新单元的帮助。搬迁一年后，如果家庭愿意，可以使用他们的券再次搬迁，而没有任何特殊的位置限制；（2）传统券（TRV）组（亦称为第8章组）获得了可在任何地方使用的常规第8章证书或券，这些家庭未获得特殊的流动性咨询；（3）对照组未通过MTO获得任何证书或券，但仍然有资格获得基于项目的住房援助以及他们应享有的其他社会项目和服务的资格。家庭从基线（1994-1998年）追踪至长期评估调查实施期（2008-2010年），旨在确定‘社区’对参与家庭的影响。此数据收集包括作为MTO长期评估的一部分完成的3,273次成人访谈数据。利用长期评估数据，相关文章报告称，从高贫困地区迁至低贫困地区与长期（10至15年）内极度肥胖和糖尿病的发病率呈适度但可能重要的下降趋势相关。数据包含为相关文章分析的所有结果和中介变量（除了一小部分来自中期MTO评估的中介变量外），以及各种人口统计和其他基线指标，这些指标在分析中已被控制。