Wisconsin Institute for Discovery
Discovery Building
330 North Orchard Street
Madison, WI 53715
vizHOME@wid.wisc.edu
Demographics
The 20 homes were located in southern Wisconsin, and were occupied by residents managing the chronic illness diabetes.
Participants allowed the vizHOME team to capture their homes. Their mean age was 59 (sd=12), ages ranged from 37 to 74, and 25% lived alone. One-quarter had children living in the home and almost half had one or more pets. All participants had a cell phone, a landline, or both; all but one household had a laptop or a personal computer.
General Health Rating
Very Good
6
Good
7
Fair
7
Single self-report item from Short Form 12. No participants selected the extremes of "Excellent" or "Poor".
Race
White
13
Black
4
Asian
1
Other
2
Self-report, using the categories described by the US census bureau.
Home Type
Participants were recruited to represent an approximately equal distribution of the following four home types.
Detached
7
Multi Unit
5
Semi-Detached
4
Mobile
4
Detached
Free-standing residential building, may also be called a single-family home.
Semi-detached
Shares at least one wall with another similar home AND has a private (non-shared) external entrance.
Multi-unit
Multiple separate housing units are contained within one building that often has multiple units and multiple floors. The entrances to each unit are from a shared hallway.
Mobile homes
A prefabricated structure, built in a factory on a permanently attached chassis before being transported to home site. It may be composed of one or more sections. (source: Wikipedia)
Setting of Home
Urban
6
Suburban
12
Rural
2
Home location was judged by the experimenter visiting the home.
Economic Hardship Index
The Economic Hardship Index is a calculation with inputs including unemployment rate, proportion dependent population, education, income level, proportion in crowded housing, and proportion in poverty at the census block group, census tract, and county levels.
Laxy M, Malecki KC, Givens ML, Walsh MC, Nieto FJ (2015). The association between neighborhood economic hardship, the retail food environment, fast food intake, and obesity: findings from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin. BMC Public Health 15:237. DOI 10.1186/s12889-015-1576-x
Least Hardship
7
Middle Tertile
5
Most Hardship
8
Clutter Rating
Low
9
Medium
8
High
3
Clutter in the home was measured using a visual analog-type scale. Two research team members present in the home independently rated the amount of clutter on a scale between 0 – 100. Differences in the two clutter ratings were discussed and resolved either by negotiated agreement or interpolation between scores when negotiation failed. Observed scores ranged between 0-99 with a mean clutter score of 41 (s.d. 33, median 42).
For simplicity of presentation, in this website clutter is presented as three levels based on this numeric rating: Low (less than 25), Medium (between 25 and 75), and High (greater than 75).
