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The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes

Many youths and young adults have variable environmental health knowledge, limited understanding of their local environment’s impact on their health, and poor environmentally friendly behaviors. We sought to develop and test a tool to reliably capture data, increase environmental health knowledge, a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Butsch Kovacic, Melinda, Elshaer, Shereen, Baker, Theresa A., Hill, Vincent, Morris, Edith, Mabisi, Keren, Snider, Ian, Gertz, Susan, Hershberger, Susan, Martin, Lisa J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10379192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37510606
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20146374
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author Butsch Kovacic, Melinda
Elshaer, Shereen
Baker, Theresa A.
Hill, Vincent
Morris, Edith
Mabisi, Keren
Snider, Ian
Gertz, Susan
Hershberger, Susan
Martin, Lisa J.
author_facet Butsch Kovacic, Melinda
Elshaer, Shereen
Baker, Theresa A.
Hill, Vincent
Morris, Edith
Mabisi, Keren
Snider, Ian
Gertz, Susan
Hershberger, Susan
Martin, Lisa J.
author_sort Butsch Kovacic, Melinda
collection PubMed
description Many youths and young adults have variable environmental health knowledge, limited understanding of their local environment’s impact on their health, and poor environmentally friendly behaviors. We sought to develop and test a tool to reliably capture data, increase environmental health knowledge, and engage youths as citizen scientists to examine and take action on their community’s challenges. The Eyewitness Community Survey (ECS) was developed through several iterations of co-design. Herein, we tested its performance. In Phase I, seven youths audited five 360° photographs. In Phase II, 27 participants works as pairs/trios and audited five locations, typically 7 days apart. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were determined. Changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy were surveyed. Feedback was obtained via focus groups. Intra-rater reliability was in the substantial/near-perfect range, with Phase II having greater consistency. Inter-rater reliability was high, with 42% and 63% of Phase I and II Kappa, respectively, in the substantial/near-perfect range. Knowledge scores improved after making observations (p ≤ 0.032). Participants (85%) reported the tool to be easy/very easy to use, with 70% willing to use it again. Thus, the ECS is a mutually beneficial citizen science tool that rigorously captures environmental data and provides engaging experiential learning opportunities.
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spelling pubmed-103791922023-07-29 The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes Butsch Kovacic, Melinda Elshaer, Shereen Baker, Theresa A. Hill, Vincent Morris, Edith Mabisi, Keren Snider, Ian Gertz, Susan Hershberger, Susan Martin, Lisa J. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Many youths and young adults have variable environmental health knowledge, limited understanding of their local environment’s impact on their health, and poor environmentally friendly behaviors. We sought to develop and test a tool to reliably capture data, increase environmental health knowledge, and engage youths as citizen scientists to examine and take action on their community’s challenges. The Eyewitness Community Survey (ECS) was developed through several iterations of co-design. Herein, we tested its performance. In Phase I, seven youths audited five 360° photographs. In Phase II, 27 participants works as pairs/trios and audited five locations, typically 7 days apart. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were determined. Changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy were surveyed. Feedback was obtained via focus groups. Intra-rater reliability was in the substantial/near-perfect range, with Phase II having greater consistency. Inter-rater reliability was high, with 42% and 63% of Phase I and II Kappa, respectively, in the substantial/near-perfect range. Knowledge scores improved after making observations (p ≤ 0.032). Participants (85%) reported the tool to be easy/very easy to use, with 70% willing to use it again. Thus, the ECS is a mutually beneficial citizen science tool that rigorously captures environmental data and provides engaging experiential learning opportunities. MDPI 2023-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10379192/ /pubmed/37510606 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20146374 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Butsch Kovacic, Melinda
Elshaer, Shereen
Baker, Theresa A.
Hill, Vincent
Morris, Edith
Mabisi, Keren
Snider, Ian
Gertz, Susan
Hershberger, Susan
Martin, Lisa J.
The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes
title The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes
title_full The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes
title_fullStr The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes
title_full_unstemmed The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes
title_short The Eyewitness Community Survey: An Engaging Citizen Science Tool to Capture Reliable Data while Improving Community Participants’ Environmental Health Knowledge and Attitudes
title_sort eyewitness community survey: an engaging citizen science tool to capture reliable data while improving community participants’ environmental health knowledge and attitudes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10379192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37510606
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20146374
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