Recent Projects:

Milwaukee Area Renters Study (MARS)
The National Children's Study
WiscAid
Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS)
Outcomes of Women Undergoing Breast Surgery
SYNAR Tobacco Compliance Study
TEAM Study of African Americans with High Blood Pressure
Midwest Young Adult Study
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
Wisconsin Family Health Survey (FHS)
Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Study (BRFSS)
Wisconsin Job Center Evaluation Study

Milwaukee Area Renters Study (MARS)

CLIENT

Matthew Desmond, Doctoral Student, UW Madison Sociology Department

DESCRIPTION

The Milwaukee Area Renters Study (MARS) is an original survey of tenants in Milwaukee's low-income private housing sector. Informed by a yearlong ethnographic study of eviction in inner-city Milwaukee, and funded primarily by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the MARS survey will be conducted via paper-assisted personal interviews in the fall of 2009. (A pretest of fifty households was completed in the summer of 2009.) Interviewers will visit approximately 2,000 households, selected from low- and high-poverty neighborhoods and through a multi-stage stratified probability sampling design. The survey will collect data on tenants' current housing situation, neighborhood characteristics, civic engagement, material hardship, and social networks. It also will compile a roster for all adults and children in the household. The bulk of the survey will collect a two-year residential history from all respondents, who will be asked about their previous housing conditions, rental behavior, landlords and building managers, and household rosters. In addition, this housing history module will document the location and number of moves each tenant has made in the previous two years and the reasons for those moves. Not only will the MARS survey collect data on the causes and consequences of eviction, it also will provide useful information about urban poverty, inner-city neighborhoods, the low-income housing market, and social networks among the poor.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Kerryann DiLoreto and Jessica Price

DATES IN FIELD

Summer 2009 - Spring 2010

The National Children's Study

CLIENT

The National Children's Study Waukesha Vanguard Center

DESCRIPTION

The National Children's Study The University of Wisconsin Survey Center acts as the local call center for the Waukesha Vanguard site of the National Children's Study. The NCS will be the largest study ever done to examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of over 100,000 children nationwide, following them from before birth, to age 21. Seven sites in the U.S., including Waukesha County, were chosen as pilot, or vanguard centers, where study protocols are being launched and tested before the study begins in nearly 100 additional representative sites around the country. UWSC is pleased to be working with the Waukesha research team, which includes the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The call center functions include assisting with the screening and recruitment of women of childbearing age in Waukesha county, as well as the conduct of follow up interviews by telephone with pregnant women enrolled in the study. As a pilot site, we work closely with the Waukesha Study Center to navigate the complexities of conducting this federally funded longitudinal study, and to collect high quality data, while maintaining strong relationships with study participants.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Kelly Elver

DATES IN FIELD

May 2009 - Ongoing

WiscAid

DESCRIPTION

WiscAid is a team of researchers committed to understanding the factors affecting student success in college. A better understanding of how much financial aid is needed and the ways aid should be allocated is vital to improving the financial aid system in Wisconsin. The main purpose of WiscAid is to improve financial aid policy in Wisconsin by providing policymakers, financial aid officers, and other decision makers with high quality information on the real impact of aid for financial aid recipients across the state.

College students from across the state of Wisconsin, including undergraduate students enrolled at all 42 two and four-year colleges in both the University of Wisconsin (UW) and Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS), are participating in WiscAid. This information will be useful to colleges and universities, financial aid providers, and Federal and local policymakers who need to know how to make college more affordable for local students.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Lisa Klein

DATES IN FIELD

August 2008 - Ongoing

PRAMS - Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System

CLIENT

Eleanor Cautley, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

DESCRIPTION

PRAMS is a population-based CDC surveillance system to reduce infant mortality and low birth weight. Started in 1987, PRAMS collects state-specific data on maternal behaviors that will be used for planning and assessing perinatal health programs. In Wisconsin, it is administered through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Wisconsin PRAMS surveys a random sample of moms who have had a live birth, stratified by non-Hispanic white, African American, and other race/ethnic groups. The survey asks about maternal behaviors before, during, and after pregnancy. The mail portion of the survey has five waves including an advance letter, a reminder letter, and up to three copies of the survey. If study participants have not completed and returned the survey after two months they are included in a phone follow-up phase to increase response. UWSC has been conducting the phone follow-up to the mail survey for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services since 2007.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Chad Kniss

DATES IN FIELD

Ongoing

Outcomes of Women Undergoing Breast Surgery

CLIENT

Dr. Anne Nattinger, Medical College of Wisconsin

DESCRIPTION

This longitudinal survey of senior women who have undergone breast surgery related to cancer has been fielded since the fall of 2005. The survey design involves 4 waves of telephone surveys with women over age 65 in the states of New York, Florida, Illinois, and California. Women were recruited to participate approximately two years after their breast cancer surgery took place, and are being contacted each year for four years to track the kinds of treatment women receive, and their overall health outcomes. UWSC has maintained 95% response rates in each of the two follow up waves completed to date. The fourth and final wave of the survey will take place in summer of 2008.

UWSC has been conducting the yearly sample frame creation, coverage studies, and compliance checks for the state of Wisconsin since 2000.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Kelly Elver

DATES IN FIELD

October 2005 - October 2008 (expected)

SYNAR Tobacco Compliance Study

CLIENT

Tana Feiner, Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services

DESCRIPTION

Under the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) block grant Synar requirement, every state in the country must conduct annual unannounced random inspections of tobacco retailers to determine the compliance rate with laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to persons under the age of 18. To fulfill the Synar requirement, each year the state of Wisconsin contracts UWSC to conduct the Synar study, which involves choosing a random sample of tobacco retail outlets, inspecting the sampled outlets, and then estimating the overall state retailer violation rate based on the results of the compliance checks.

UWSC has been conducting the yearly sample frame creation, coverage studies, and compliance checks for the state of Wisconsin since 2000.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Jessica Price

DATES IN FIELD

Ongoing

TEAM Study of African Americans with High Blood Pressure

CLIENT

Dr. Bonnie Svarstad, UW Madison School of Pharmacy

DESCRIPTION

The TEAM Study is a longitudinal study of 700 African Americans with high blood pressure living in Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Beloit, or Madison. The study examines the an intervention approach whereby community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in these five Wisconsin cities help educate patients about their blood pressure, medications and other strategies needed to control blood pressure, and communicate with the patients' doctors when appropriate. The UWSC conducted the second wave (6-month follow-up) using in-person meetings with respondents to measure blood pressure and administer SAQs. Interviews took place in respondents' homes or at their site pharmacy. UWSC achieved over a 90% response rate for this study.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Kerryann DiLoreto

DATES IN FIELD

March 2007 - January 2009

Midwest Young Adult Study

CLIENT

Dr. Mark Courtney, Partners for Our Children, University of Washington Seattle; and Dr. Amy Dworsky, University of Chicago Chapin Hall Center for Children

DESCRIPTION

In collaboration with Partners for Our Children, the Chapin Hall Center for Children, the Department of Children and Family Services in the State of Illinois, the Department of Human Services in the State of Iowa, and the Department of Health and Family Services - Division of Children and Family Services in the State of Wisconsin, UWSC interviewed approximately 775 foster care youth placed with foster care providers at Wave 1 in 2002. Roughly 225 youth were interviewed in Wisconsin, 425 in Illinois, and 80 in Iowa. Interviews were about 75 minutes in length and asked about the youth's living situation, closeness with foster care family, schooling, preparation for independent living, drug and alcohol use, and future plans. Sections from the WHM-CIDI were included in the interview. The interview also featured an ACASI (audio computer-assisted self-interview) section for administering sensitive questions about abuse and delinquency.

This longitudinal study involved follow-up rounds of in-person interviews in 2004, when some respondents were leaving foster care at the age of 19, in 2006 when respondents were living independently at the age of 22, and again in 2008. Extensive tracing and location methods were employed to track respondents from wave to wave. A fifth wave of this study will be fielded in the summer of 2010. The results of this study have been used to understand the experiences of foster youth, and how various agencies and programs can address the youth's needs for services and support as they age out of the system.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Kerryann DiLoreto

DATES IN FIELD

2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 (expected)

Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

CLIENT

Robert Hauser, Vilas Research Professor of Sociology

DESCRIPTION

This project is moving forward from its fifth round of data collection for the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). The WLS began in 1957 with original data collection from 10,317 high school graduates in Wisconsin with subsequent data collection in 1964, 1975, and 1992. The most recent wave consisted of an in-depth telephone interview and a follow-up mail survey with the more than 9600 surviving men and women in the original sample. A parallel phone and mail survey was conducted with 7150 randomly selected siblings of the graduates. A shorter telephone survey was conducted with spouses of graduates and siblings. Currently, UWSC is conducting a telephone survey with widows of graduates and widows of siblings.

The WLS is a unique, large-scale longitudinal study of adults and their families that covers nearly half a century of life. It is a valuable resource for research on aging, life course, inter-generational transfers, relationships, family functioning, long term effects of education and cognitive ability, occupational careers, physical and mental well-being, and morbidity and mortality.

Most recently, UWSC conducted a massive biomarker collection for the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. 8,141 graduates were asked to donate a saliva sample using an Oragene kit and return it by mail. With the success of this effort, UWSC will be fielding a similar biomarker collection effort with the siblings. WLS investigators plan to analyze the DNA in the saliva to study the relationship of genes to health and well-being, including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and depression.

Further information can be found here.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Kerryann DiLoreto

DATE IN FIELD

May 2003 - April 2008

Wisconsin Family Health Survey (FHS)

CLIENT

Department of Health and Family Services, Division of Public Health, Bureau of Health Information and Policy

DESCRIPTION

The Wisconsin Family Health Survey (FHS) is an RDD phone survey of 2400 Wisconsin residents conducted for the Department of Health and Family Services. The purpose of this annual survey is to collect statewide health information of Wisconsin residents. Oversampling of minority populations and a stratified sampling frame design allow investigators to discern racial and regional trends, among others.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Chad Kniss

DATE IN FIELD

Ongoing

Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Study (BRFSS)

CLIENT

Center for Disease Control & Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services

DESCRIPTION

BRFSS is an ongoing study that is coordinated by the CDC on a national level and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services in the state of Wisconsin. The BRFSS is the largest health study that studies risk factors affecting the health of America. These include the amount of exercise in one's life, one's diet, and the frequency of doctor visits. Monthly, the UWSC performs approximately 334 interviews in the state of Wisconsin.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Robert Cradock

DATE IN FIELD

Ongoing

WI Job Center Evaluation Study

CLIENT

Duane Frisch, Department of Workforce Development

DESCRIPTION

This study is a federally mandated customer service evaluation of services received from Wisconsin Job Centers. This is a CATI survey of 500 businesses and 500 employees who have used Job Center services. Respondents are asked to rate the services they have received in order to evaluate how Job Centers are responding to their needs. The study was conducted last year by the UWSC and is continuing again this year.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Bob Cradock

DATE IN FIELD

Fall 2001 - Present