Development and testing of mobile technology for community park improvements: validity and reliability of the eCPAT application with youth

Abstract

Creation of mobile technology environmental audit tools can provide a more interactive way for youth to engage with communities and facilitate participation in health promotion efforts. This study describes the development and validity and reliability testing of an electronic version of the Community Park Audit Tool (eCPAT). eCPAT consists of 149 items and incorporates a variety of technology benefits. Criterion-related validity and inter-rater reliability were evaluated using data from 52 youth across 47 parks in Greenville County, SC. A large portion of items (>70 %) demonstrated either fair or moderate to perfect validity and reliability. All but six items demonstrated excellent percent agreement. The eCPAT app is a user-friendly tool that provides a comprehensive assessment of park environments. Given the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and other electronic devices among both adolescents and adults, the eCPAT app has potential to be distributed and used widely for a variety of health promotion purposes.

The Electronic Community Park Audit Tool (eCPAT): Exploring the Use of Mobile Technology for Youth Empowerment and Advocacy for Healthy Community Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change

“…Furthermore, almost all youth indicated that they would use the eCPAT application in future projects. This finding confirms the feasibility of the eCPAT mobile application and provides preliminary evidence that the use of eCPAT mobile technology could facilitate the PAR process among youth populations ( 46 , 53 ). As youth become more adept with electronic collection and utilization of PAR data, future research should seek to update this study's findings.…”

“…Multiple iterative stages were used to comprehensively develop an eCPAT app ( 53 ). Briefly, a systematic literature review of youth, technology, and health advocacy identified theoretical frameworks and key methodologies for developing mobile applications to engage youth in health promotion efforts ( 23 , 26 , 49 , 50 ).…”

“…Upon application and server design completion, a second round of extensive capacity field-testing of both the eCPAT application and wireless data transfer and storage were conducted. Further details about the development and testing of the eCPAT app can be found elsewhere ( 53 ). A comparison between the CPAT and the newly developed eCPAT formats can be found in Table 2 .…”

Comparative Research of Audit Tools on Built Environment for Active Living

“…Most empirical studies have demonstrated that proximity is key to the usage of open spaces [72] [73] . Besides, Figure 4 reveals many other potential elements, among which facility, as an easily 如图3所示，所有社区类量表均包含土地利用混合度、基础环境 特征与安全这三类要素，它们是最受重视的环境要素。其中，土地利 用混合度与基础环境特征的指标数量占比最高，两者占比之和范围为 33.33%(PIN3)~84%(SWEAT)，大量实证研究也证明良好的安全要 素和较高的土地利用混合度能够促进社区活力 [62] [63] 。同时，提及最少的 要素类别为主观评估，其次为社会环境。例如，由于步行吸引力等指 标具有复杂性而难以被量化，因此研究者多使用主观评估作为附属评 估要素。仅4份量表提及主观评估，占比很小，且普遍信度偏低 [64] [65] ； 社会环境要素在实际度量中也存在这一问题(如"噪音"的发生具有 随机性，在不同时间段度量的结果有差异)，且在大部分量表中占比 偏低或为零，城市规划设计虽然不能直接主导其变化，却有望施以间 接影响。 在各社区量表中，IMI和MAPS涵盖内容较全面、信度较高。IMI是 应用最多的社区类量表 [66]~ [68] 。MAPS不涉及主观评估，共有4个版本： 完整版本(200个指标)主要度量微观尺度环境特征；使用缩略版本 (54个指标)度量环境的研究最多 [69] ；迷你版本(18个指标)侧重从 宏观角度用简单易测的指标进行度量，多为社区机构采用 [43] ；全球版 本为国际间对比提供了可能，目前已在5个国家进行了信度检验 [70] 。 N A L P与S W E A T是涵盖要素最少的量表。NALP中指标多基于中观视 角，较为精炼，适合快速了解环境支持积极活动的潜力 [71] ；SWEAT旨 在度量社区环境对老年人活动的支持水平，指标针对性较好，尤其强 调安全要素 [53] POST应用较多，前者于2016年发展出应用程序eCAPT [76] ，后者分别于 2010年和2018年发展出新西兰版本(NZ-POST)和应用App [77] [78] ，这些 版本都在不同程度上拓宽了量表应用范围并简化了工作流程。 measurable one, accounting for a highest percentage, e.g., up to 68% in PARK audit tool -probably because its popularization in open spaces, especially in parks, can greatly help increase physical activities. Similar to those for community, all the open space audit tools measure basic environmental characteristics (accounting from 12% to 22%), and subjective assessment is least considered.…”

“…For the rest, NGST and PARA exclude considerations on subjective assessment, aesthetics, and surrounding environment and are often used for assessing the environment's direct influence on physical activities. Witnessing the widest application, CPAT developed the eCAPT version in 2016 [76] , and POST developed its New Zealand version (NZ-POST) in 2010 and mobile application in 2018 [77] [78] . All these new versions help popularize the audit tools and simplify workflows.…”