Using Google Earth to conduct a neighborhood audit: Reliability of a virtual audit instrument

Clarke, Philippa; Ailshire, Jennifer; Melendez, Robert; Bader, Michael; Morenoff, Jeffrey D.

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.08.007

Cited by 241 publications

(226 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…A virtual audit has been shown to provide reliable indicators of land use, recreational facilities, and the local food environment at a fraction of the cost of an in-person audit. 35,36 All subject addresses were geocoded, and a trained rater conducted a virtual audit of all four streets in each subject's block using a standardized instrument. A summary urban accessibility score was calculated for each street by summing the number of mobility-enhancing features 37 : (1) sidewalks in place on both sides of the street; (2) continuous sidewalks; (3) smooth/flat/ unbroken sidewalks; (4) free from obstructions; (5) wide enough to allow two people to pass comfortably; and (6) a public transportation stop on the street.…”

Section: Community Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing Mobility in Later Life: The Role of the Urban Built Environment for Older Adults Aging in Place

Clarke

Gallagher

2013

J Urban Health

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Hazards in the urban built environment can create barriers to mobility among older adults aging in place. We investigated the relationship between urban built environment characteristics and 15-month trajectories of mobility disability in a sample of 1,188 older adults living in Detroit, MI, a city that has undergone rapid economic and structural decline. Data come from the Michigan Minimum Data Set for Home Care (2001Care ( -2008, an enumerative database of older adults in Michigan who qualify for federal or state-funded home and community-based long-term care through a Medicaid waiver program. Standardized assessments are made at intake and every 90 days by case managers. Built environments were assessed with a virtual audit using the "Street View" feature of Google Earth. A summary accessibility score was created for each block based on a count of the number of accessible features (e.g., continuous barrier-free sidewalks and proximity of public transportation). Using growth mixture models, two latent trajectories of outdoor mobility were identified: one capturing occasional outdoor mobility (representing 83 % of the sample) and one capturing almost no mobility outside the home. Controlling for sociodemographic and health risk factors, individuals living in more accessible environments had a 18 % higher odds of being in the more mobile group (OR01.18, 95 % CI01.01, 1.41). These findings emphasize the importance of the built environment for mobility among urban-dwelling older adults.

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Section: Community Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing Mobility in Later Life: The Role of the Urban Built Environment for Older Adults Aging in Place

Clarke

Gallagher

2013

J Urban Health

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“…The correspondence between the two data sets was also lower than in other comparability research using the same Chicago SSO data Clarke et al, 2010). However, Bader and colleagues (2010) examined only one type of land use (commercial businesses), and had more information available to achieve comparability between data sources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

A Comparison of Two Methods for Measuring Land Use in Public Health Research

King

2015

Sage Open

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Public health researchers have identified numerous health implications associated with land use. However, it is unclear which of multiple methods of data collection most accurately captures land use, and “gold standard” methods vary by discipline. Five desirable features of environmental data sources are presented and discussed (cost, coverage, availability, construct validity, and accuracy). Potential accuracy issues are discussed by using Kappa statistics to evaluate the level of agreement between data sets collected by two methods (systematic social observation [SSO] by trained raters and publicly available data from aerial photography coded using administrative records) from the same blocks in Chicago, Illinois. Significant Kappa statistics range from 0.19 to 0.60, indicating varying levels of intersource agreement. Most land uses are more likely to be reported by researcher-designed direct observation than in the publicly available data derived from aerial photography. However, when cost, coverage, and availability outweigh a marginal improvement in accuracy and flexibility in land-use categorization, coded aerial photography data may be a useful data source for health researchers. Greater interdisciplinary and interorganization collaboration in the production of ecological data is recommended to improve cost, coverage, availability, and accuracy, with implications for construct validity.

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“…There is a precedent for using web-based mapping technologies to fill gaps and perform neighbourhood audits (Clarke et al 2010;Rundle et al 2011;Rossen et al 2012). Google Maps and Google StreetView were examined for the outlet location using the information contained in the licence record, including, for example, the outlet name, street and locality.…”

Section: Manually Matching Licence Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Routinely Collected Administrative Data in Public Health Research: Geocoding Alcohol Outlet Data

Fry

Rodgers

Morgan

et al. 2016

Appl. Spatial Analysis

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We describe our process of geocoding alcohol outlets to create a national longitudinal exposure dataset for Wales, United Kingdom from 2006 to 2011. We investigated variation in the availability of data items and the quality of alcohol outlet addresses held within unitary authorities. We used a standard geocoding method augmented with a manual matching procedure to achieve a fully spatially referenced dataset. We found higher quality addresses are held for outlets based in urban areas, resulting in the automatic geocoding of 68 % of urban outlets, compared to 48 % in rural areas. Missing postcodes and a lack of address structure contributed to a lower geocoding proportion. An urban rural bias was removed with the development of a manual matching procedure. Only one-half of the unitary authorities provided data on on/off sales and opening times, which are important availability factors. The resulting outlet dataset is suitable for contributing to the evidence-base of alcohol availability and alcohol-related harm. Local government should be encouraged to use standardised data fields, including addresses, to enable accurate geocoding of alcohol outlets and facilitate research that aims to prevent alcohol-related harm. Standardising data collection would enable efficient secondary data reuse using record linkage techniques, allowing Appl. Spatial Analysis (2017) 10:301-315

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Using Google Earth to conduct a neighborhood audit: Reliability of a virtual audit instrument

Cited by 241 publications

References 29 publications

Optimizing Mobility in Later Life: The Role of the Urban Built Environment for Older Adults Aging in Place

Optimizing Mobility in Later Life: The Role of the Urban Built Environment for Older Adults Aging in Place

A Comparison of Two Methods for Measuring Land Use in Public Health Research

Using Routinely Collected Administrative Data in Public Health Research: Geocoding Alcohol Outlet Data

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