VITAL: Vital Investments To Advance Life expectancy - Large and persistent gaps in life expectancy between Black and White people, which approach ten years in major U.S. cities, represent an important public health challenge. It is increasingly recognized that social and environmental neighborhood conditions resulting from disinvestment in segregated Black neighborhoods are strongly associated with health disparities. These social determinants lead to chronic stress and unhealthy behaviors, which ultimately lead to poor cardiovascular (CV) health. If neighborhood environments contribute to reduced life expectancy, improving social and environmental determinants of health represents a promising strategy for narrowing the Black–White life expectancy gap. The proposed research takes advantage of a unique opportunity to measure the impact on CV health of a major social and capital investment in a highly segregated, high poverty neighborhood in Chicago: West Garfield Park. The Sankofa Wellness Village, a $50 million investment that is set to open at the end of 2025, is a community-designed set of initiatives intended to improve social and environmental conditions in the neighborhood. The initiatives include a wellness center (with a health clinic, a YMCA with a gym and walking track, a community-owned credit union and a café), a business center to support local entrepreneurs, an arts and performance center, and a grocer initiative to provide local access to healthy food. The Sankofa Wellness Village will expand access to services and recreational amenities expected to influence community health. Our approach will be to measure change in health-related social needs and CV health in a cohort of residents before and after the opening of the Sankofa Wellness Village in West Garfield Park. To control for the influence of external factors on social needs and cardiovascular health in West Garfield Park, we will assess changes in the same measures in Englewood, another disinvested community located in a different area of Chicago. We hypothesize that by transforming social and environmental conditions that influence cardiovascular health, the Sankofa Wellness Village will lead to reduced social needs, improved psychological well-being, and improved Life’s Essential 8 CV health behaviors and health factors in residents of West Garfield Park relative to residents of Englewood. These findings will provide rigorous evidence on whether investments that improve social and environmental conditions are associated with changes in cardiovascular health and related risk factors, with implications for reducing disparities in life expectancy across urban communities.
