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Jason A Mendoza - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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school walkability index application of Environmental Audit tool and gis
Journal of transport and health, 2020Co-Authors: Sungmin Lee, Chanam Lee, Ji Won Nam, Mark Abbeylambertz, Jason A MendozaAbstract:Abstract Introduction Active school travel is an important way to promote children's physical activity, but it requires supportive environments that can safely and comfortably accommodate children's walking and biking. Few existing indices explicitly consider school neighborhood Environmental factors related to children's walking to school. In this study, we used a street Audit tool and Geographic Information System (GIS) to evaluate walkability near low-income elementary schools in Seattle, WA. Methods The Audit-based school walkability index was developed based on all street segments (n = 841) within a 0.4 km network buffer from each study school (n = 18). The GIS-based school walkability, a combination of road connectivity, vehicular traffic exposure, and residential density, was also measured in a 2 km network buffer around each school. The participants were individuals aged 8–11 years (n = 315) who participated in the Walking School Bus randomized controlled trial project. Mixed-effects logistic and linear models were used to examine the association of the index's representations of the built environment with children's school travel mode (walking or biking to school 1+ times per week) and with objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA, average weekday minutes during the 90-min before-school period). These associations were tested with the total sample as well as the subsample of children living within 1.5 km from their schools. Results The Audit-based school walkability index (WI) was positively associated with both active commuting to school among the subsample living within 1.5 km from their schools and with children's before-school MVPA among the subsample and the total sample. The GIS-based school WI showed significant associations with children's before-school MVPA but no relationships with active school travel among the subsample and the total sample. Conclusion The Audit-based school walkability index can be used as a complementary tool for measuring walkability near low-income elementary schools along with existing GIS-based school walkability index.
Chanam Lee - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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school walkability index application of Environmental Audit tool and gis
Journal of transport and health, 2020Co-Authors: Sungmin Lee, Chanam Lee, Ji Won Nam, Mark Abbeylambertz, Jason A MendozaAbstract:Abstract Introduction Active school travel is an important way to promote children's physical activity, but it requires supportive environments that can safely and comfortably accommodate children's walking and biking. Few existing indices explicitly consider school neighborhood Environmental factors related to children's walking to school. In this study, we used a street Audit tool and Geographic Information System (GIS) to evaluate walkability near low-income elementary schools in Seattle, WA. Methods The Audit-based school walkability index was developed based on all street segments (n = 841) within a 0.4 km network buffer from each study school (n = 18). The GIS-based school walkability, a combination of road connectivity, vehicular traffic exposure, and residential density, was also measured in a 2 km network buffer around each school. The participants were individuals aged 8–11 years (n = 315) who participated in the Walking School Bus randomized controlled trial project. Mixed-effects logistic and linear models were used to examine the association of the index's representations of the built environment with children's school travel mode (walking or biking to school 1+ times per week) and with objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA, average weekday minutes during the 90-min before-school period). These associations were tested with the total sample as well as the subsample of children living within 1.5 km from their schools. Results The Audit-based school walkability index (WI) was positively associated with both active commuting to school among the subsample living within 1.5 km from their schools and with children's before-school MVPA among the subsample and the total sample. The GIS-based school WI showed significant associations with children's before-school MVPA but no relationships with active school travel among the subsample and the total sample. Conclusion The Audit-based school walkability index can be used as a complementary tool for measuring walkability near low-income elementary schools along with existing GIS-based school walkability index.
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tcoppe school Environmental Audit tool assessing safety and walkability of school environments
Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 2013Co-Authors: Chanam Lee, Hyung Jin Kim, Diane Dowdy, Deanna M Hoelscher, Marcia G OryAbstract:Background: Several Environmental Audit instruments have been developed for assessing streets, parks and trails, but none for schools. This paper introduces a school Audit tool that includes 3 subcomponents: 1) street Audit, 2) school site Audit, and 3) map Audit. It presents the conceptual basis and the development process of this instrument, and the methods and results of the reliability assessments. Methods: Reliability tests were conducted by 2 trained Auditors on 12 study schools (high-low income and urban-suburban-rural settings). Kappa statistics (categorical, factual items) and ICC (Likert-scale, perceptual items) were used to assess a) interrater, b) test-retest, and c) peak vs. off-peak hour reliability tests. Results: For the interrater reliability test, the average Kappa was 0.839 and the ICC was 0.602. For the test-retest reliability, the average Kappa was 0.903 and the ICC was 0.774. The peak–off peak reliability was 0.801. Rural schools showed the most consistent results in the peak–off pea...
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walking and bicycling an evaluation of Environmental Audit instruments
American Journal of Health Promotion, 2003Co-Authors: Anne Vernez Moudon, Chanam LeeAbstract:Purpose. This paper reviews existing Environmental Audit instruments used to capture the walkability and bikability of environments. The review inventories and evaluates individual measures of Environmental factors used in these instruments. It synthesizes the current state of knowledge in quantifying the built environment. The paper provides health promotion professionals an understanding of the essential aspects of environments influencing walking and bicycling for both recreational and transportation purposes. It serves as a basis to develop valid and efficient tools to create activityfriendly communities. Data Sources. Keyword searches identified journal articles from the computer-based Academic Citation Databases, including the National Transportation Library, the Web of Science Citation Database, and MEDLINE. Governmental publications and conference proceedings were also searched. Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria. All instruments to Audit physical environments have been included in this review, considering both recreation- and transportation-related walking and bicycling. Excluded are general methods devised to estimate walking and cycling trips, those used in empirical studies on land use and transportation, and research on walking inside buildings. Data Extraction Methods. Data have been extracted from each instrument using a template of key items developed for this review. The data were examined for quality assurance among three experienced researchers. Data Synthesis. A behavioral model of the built environment guides the synthesis according to three components: the origin and destination of the walk or bike trip, the characteristics of the road traveled, and the characteristics of the areas surrounding the trip’s origin and destination. These components, combined with the characteristics of the instruments themselves, lead to a classification of the instruments into the four categories of inventory, route quality assessment, area quality assessment, and approaches to estimating latent demand for walking and bicycling. Furthermore, individual variables used in each instrument to measure the environment are grouped into four classes: spatiophysical, spatiobehavioral, spatiopsychosocial, and policy-based. Major Conclusions. Individually, existing instruments rely on selective classes of variables and therefore assess only parts of built environments that affect walking and bicycling. Most of the instruments and individual measures have not been rigorously tested because of a lack of available data on walking and bicycling and because of limited research budgets. Future instrument development will depend on the acquisition of empirical data on walking and bicycling, on inclusion of all three components of the behavioral model, and on consideration of all classes of variables identified. (Am J
Marcia G Ory - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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tcoppe school Environmental Audit tool assessing safety and walkability of school environments
Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 2013Co-Authors: Chanam Lee, Hyung Jin Kim, Diane Dowdy, Deanna M Hoelscher, Marcia G OryAbstract:Background: Several Environmental Audit instruments have been developed for assessing streets, parks and trails, but none for schools. This paper introduces a school Audit tool that includes 3 subcomponents: 1) street Audit, 2) school site Audit, and 3) map Audit. It presents the conceptual basis and the development process of this instrument, and the methods and results of the reliability assessments. Methods: Reliability tests were conducted by 2 trained Auditors on 12 study schools (high-low income and urban-suburban-rural settings). Kappa statistics (categorical, factual items) and ICC (Likert-scale, perceptual items) were used to assess a) interrater, b) test-retest, and c) peak vs. off-peak hour reliability tests. Results: For the interrater reliability test, the average Kappa was 0.839 and the ICC was 0.602. For the test-retest reliability, the average Kappa was 0.903 and the ICC was 0.774. The peak–off peak reliability was 0.801. Rural schools showed the most consistent results in the peak–off pea...
Jonathan M Gallimore - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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light rail use is more likely on walkable blocks further support for using micro level Environmental Audit measures
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2010Co-Authors: Carol M Werner, Barbara B Brown, Jonathan M GallimoreAbstract:The primary purpose of the study was to address the claim that people are more likely to walk to a transit stop if they live on a "walkable" block. An additional purpose was to evaluate the Irvine Minnesota Inventory (IMI) as an Environmental Audit tool. The IMI was used to measure walkability features of 19 blocks in a revitalizing neighborhood. We hypothesized that residents who walked to a light rail TRAX stop (n = 22) would live on blocks with higher walkability ratings compared to residents who did not walk to TRAX (nonriders, n = 15), or who walked only after a closer TRAX stop was built (new users, n = 11). A MANCOVA indicated the IMI scales differentiated the blocks; the strongest differences were obtained in subscales that measured the block's diversity, safety from crime and density (marginally significant). Participants' perceptions of their complete walk to the transit stop were consistent with the home block IMI scores, with the continuing riders having more positive views than the other two groups. The results show the ability of the IMI to distinguish among blocks in walkability, and support further use of this Audit tool in Environmental analyses and active living research. We end with a discussion of conceptual and methodological issues in the use of Audit tools and provide recommendations for using these measures for local, immediate interests, as well as for building a broader science of Environmental measurement.
Dianne S Ward - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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physical activity and healthy eating Environmental Audit tools in youth care settings a systematic review
Preventive Medicine, 2015Co-Authors: Rahma Ajja, Michael W Beets, Jessica Chandler, Andrew T Kaczynski, Dianne S WardAbstract:Abstract Background There is a growing interest in evaluating the physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) policy and practice environment characteristics in settings frequented by youth (≤ 18 years). Objective This review evaluates the measurement properties of Audit tools designed to assess PA and HE policy and practice environment characteristics in settings that care for youth (e.g., childcare, school, afterschool, summer camp). Method Three electronic databases, reference lists, educational department and national health organizations' web pages were searched between January 1980 and February 2014 to identify tools assessing PA and/or HE policy and practice environments in settings that care for youth (≤ 18 years). Results Sixty-five Audit tools were identified of which 53 individual tools met the inclusion criteria. Thirty-three tools assessed both the PA and HE domains, 6 assessed the PA domain and 14 assessed the HE domain solely. The majority of the tools were self-assessment tools (n = 40), and were developed to assess the PA and/or HE environment in school settings (n = 33), childcare (n = 12), and after school programs (n = 4). Four tools assessed the community at-large and had sections for assessing preschool, school and/or afterschool settings within the tool. The majority of Audit tools lacked validity and/or reliability data (n = 42). Inter-rater reliability and construct validity were the most frequently reported reliability (n = 7) and validity types (n = 5). Conclusions Limited attention has been given to establishing the reliability and validity of Audit tools for settings that care for youth. Future efforts should be directed towards establishing a strong measurement foundation for these important Environmental Audit tools.