Details:

Personal Author:
Day, Kristine ; Rivera, Mark ; Soler, Robin ; Kent, Charlotte ; Kochtitzky, Chris S.
Day, Kristine ; Rivera, Mark ; Soler, Robin ; Kent, Charlotte ; Kochtitzky, Chris S. Less -
Corporate Authors:
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (U.S.). Division of Community Health. ; ICF International (Firm)
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (U.S.). Division of Community Health. ; ICF International (Firm) Less -
Description:
A wide array of tools exists for measuring different features of the built environment, many of them well validated. These existing tools fall into three categories: 1) interview or self-administered questionnaires which primarily measure perceptions, 2) tools that collect archival (existing) data, often using GIS, and 3) systematic observation or audit tools (Brownson et al., 2009). It is often difficult for local program staff and evaluators to know which features of the built environment are most important to measure on the basis of the health behaviors and outcomes they are trying to affect. It is also difficult to know which tool(s) to choose to most accurately and feasibly assess those features.

The Built Environment Assessment Tool (BE Tool) (an adaptation of MAPS) (Appendix D) is a direct systematic observation data collection instrument for measuring the core features and quality of the built environment related to behaviors that affect health, especially behaviors such as walking, biking, and other types of physical activity. There are many aspects of the built environment. The built environment includes the buildings, roads, sidewalks, utilities, homes, transit, fixtures, parks and all other man-made entities that form the physical characteristics of a community. The built environment can impact human health by affecting rates of physical activity, air pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter that can exacerbate asthma and respiratory disease, and emissions of carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change.

The DCH Built Environment Assessment Tool (BE Tool) and manual (an adaptation of MAPS) was developed by ICF International through contract No: 200-2007-22643-0003 with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Community Health.

BuiltEnvironment-v3.pdf


Subject:
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Data Collection
Environment Design
Health Promotion
Residence Characteristics

Document Type:
Report
Funding:
contract No: 200-2007-22643-0003
Collection(s):
Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:b8b4b0ef842dcf0e6b1a8553181cf802f4ffbeb49e22c675332e22b31b52b039
File Type:

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