Citation

Friche AA, Diez-Roux AV, César CC, Xavier CC, Proietti FA, Caiaffa WT. J. Urban Health 2013; 90(2): 246-261.

Affiliation

Graduate Program of Public Health, School of Medicina, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, gutafriche@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11524-012-9737-z

PMID

22692842

Abstract

Although specific measurement instruments are necessary to better understand the relationship between features of neighborhoods and health, very few studies have developed instruments to measure neighborhood features in developing countries. The objective of the study was to develop valid and reliable measures of neighborhood context useful in a Latin American urban context, assess their psychometric and ecometric properties, and examine individual and neighborhood-level predictors of these measures. We analyzed data from a multistage household survey (2008-2009) conducted in Belo Horizonte City by the Observatory for Urban Health. One adult in each household was selected to answer a questionnaire that included scales to measure neighborhood domains. Census tracts were used to proxy neighborhoods. Internal consistency was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha, and multilevel models were used to estimate ecometric properties and to estimate associations of neighborhood measures with socioeconomic indicators. The final sample comprised 4048 survey respondents representing 149 census tracts. We assessed ten neighborhood environment dimensions: public services, aesthetic quality, walking environment, safety, violence, social cohesion, neighborhood participation, neighborhood physical disorder, neighborhood social disorder, and neighborhood problems. Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.53 to 0.83; intraneighborhood correlations ranged from 0.02 to 0.53, and neighborhood reliability varied from 0.76 to 0.99. Most scales were associated with individual and neighborhood socioeconomic predictors. Questionnaires can be used to reliably measure neighborhood contexts in developing countries.

Language: en