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Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer

BACKGROUND: Numerous definitions of neighborhood exist, yet few studies have considered youth’s perceptions of neighborhood boundaries. This study compared youth-identified neighborhood (YIN) boundaries to census-defined neighborhood (CDN) boundaries, and determined how the amount of time spent and...

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Autores principales: Robinson, Alyssa I, Oreskovic, Nicolas M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24325342
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-12-57
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author Robinson, Alyssa I
Oreskovic, Nicolas M
author_facet Robinson, Alyssa I
Oreskovic, Nicolas M
author_sort Robinson, Alyssa I
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Numerous definitions of neighborhood exist, yet few studies have considered youth’s perceptions of neighborhood boundaries. This study compared youth-identified neighborhood (YIN) boundaries to census-defined neighborhood (CDN) boundaries, and determined how the amount of time spent and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels compared within both boundary types. METHODS: Adolescents aged 11–14 years were asked to identify their neighborhood boundaries using a map. Objective location and physical activity data collected using Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and accelerometers were used to calculate the amount of time spent and MVPA within youth-identified and census-defined neighborhood boundaries. Paired bivariate analyses compared mean area (meters squared), percent of total time, daily MVPA (minutes), time density (minutes/m(2)) and MVPA density (minutes/m(2)) for both boundary types. RESULTS: Youth-identified neighborhoods (1,821,705 m(2)) and census-defined neighborhoods (1,277,181 m(2)) were not significantly different in area, p = 0.30. However, subjects spent more time in youth-identified neighborhoods (80.3%) than census-defined neighborhoods (58.4%), p < 0.0001, and engaged in more daily MVPA within youth-identified neighborhoods (14.7 minutes) than census-defined neighborhoods (9.5 minutes), p < 0.0001. After adjusting for boundary area, MVPA density (minutes of MVPA per squared meter of area) remained significantly greater for youth-identified neighborhoods (2.4 × 10(-4) minutes/m(2)) than census-defined neighborhoods (1.4 × 10(-4) minutes/m(2)), p = 0.02. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents perceive their neighborhoods to be similar in size to census-defined neighborhoods. However, youth-identified neighborhoods better capture the locations in which adolescents spend time and engage in physical activity. Asking adolescents to identify their neighborhood boundaries is a feasible and valuable method for identifying the spaces that adolescents are exposed to and use to be physically active.
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spelling pubmed-40293952014-05-22 Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer Robinson, Alyssa I Oreskovic, Nicolas M Int J Health Geogr Research BACKGROUND: Numerous definitions of neighborhood exist, yet few studies have considered youth’s perceptions of neighborhood boundaries. This study compared youth-identified neighborhood (YIN) boundaries to census-defined neighborhood (CDN) boundaries, and determined how the amount of time spent and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels compared within both boundary types. METHODS: Adolescents aged 11–14 years were asked to identify their neighborhood boundaries using a map. Objective location and physical activity data collected using Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and accelerometers were used to calculate the amount of time spent and MVPA within youth-identified and census-defined neighborhood boundaries. Paired bivariate analyses compared mean area (meters squared), percent of total time, daily MVPA (minutes), time density (minutes/m(2)) and MVPA density (minutes/m(2)) for both boundary types. RESULTS: Youth-identified neighborhoods (1,821,705 m(2)) and census-defined neighborhoods (1,277,181 m(2)) were not significantly different in area, p = 0.30. However, subjects spent more time in youth-identified neighborhoods (80.3%) than census-defined neighborhoods (58.4%), p < 0.0001, and engaged in more daily MVPA within youth-identified neighborhoods (14.7 minutes) than census-defined neighborhoods (9.5 minutes), p < 0.0001. After adjusting for boundary area, MVPA density (minutes of MVPA per squared meter of area) remained significantly greater for youth-identified neighborhoods (2.4 × 10(-4) minutes/m(2)) than census-defined neighborhoods (1.4 × 10(-4) minutes/m(2)), p = 0.02. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents perceive their neighborhoods to be similar in size to census-defined neighborhoods. However, youth-identified neighborhoods better capture the locations in which adolescents spend time and engage in physical activity. Asking adolescents to identify their neighborhood boundaries is a feasible and valuable method for identifying the spaces that adolescents are exposed to and use to be physically active. BioMed Central 2013-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4029395/ /pubmed/24325342 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-12-57 Text en Copyright © 2013 Robinson and Oreskovic; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Robinson, Alyssa I
Oreskovic, Nicolas M
Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer
title Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer
title_full Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer
title_fullStr Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer
title_full_unstemmed Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer
title_short Comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using GPS and accelerometer
title_sort comparing self-identified and census-defined neighborhoods among adolescents using gps and accelerometer
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029395/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24325342
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-12-57
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