Produção Nacional
Neighborhood walkability scale (news - brazilian version): validity and reliability
2006; UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA; Volume: 8; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1980-0037
Autores Tópico(s)Urban Transport and Accessibility
ResumoThe lack of adherence to practice physical activities urges several researchers to ind answers for this matter. Among these researches, it is investigated how or what motivates people to perform any type of physical activity. Besides that, the environmental conditions are an important reason to establish a healthier lifestyle among individuals. In Brazil, the amount of validated scales about environmental barriers for physical activity in communities is restricted. The validation and the cultural adaptation of these instruments are important not only to compare with studies from other countries, but mainly for planning public politics to improve the adherence to practice physical activities. Thus, the present research aimed to analyze the validity and reliability of the Brazilian version of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS). The methodological procedures were structured in three stages. The first stage had the following procedures: translation of NEWS and back-translation by bilingual specialists. The second stage was the adaptation of NEWS to the Brazilian reality through a pilot study and with reliability. The third stage, together with a professional urban panel indicating which neighborhoods had better or worse mobility, it was accomplished a application of the NEWS questionnaire to assure construct validation. The sample of this research were separated in two parts, 75 persons for the reliability; and for the validity of the questionnaire 200 residents from the four neighborhoods pointed by the specialists of the city of Florianopolis (SC). Through the NEWS the subjects answered questions about the neighborhoods regarding: type of residences, stores and trade proximity, perception of access to these places, streets characteristics, facilities to walk and ride bicycle, and safety related to traffic and crimes. The statistical analysis was made in the SPSS 11.0 version for the intra-class correlation and reliability for the dimensions, and the Spearman correlation test and intra-class correlation for all indicators from this questionnaire. The results found in this present study shows that the translation, and back translation of NEWS were considered good; the a value of the questionnaire was 0,804; the dimensions presented strong correlation (R = 0,98-1,00) and good consistence (a = 0,655 a 0,904); the indicators showed moderated to strong values for reliability (rs= 0,55-0,99) and strong correlation (R= 0,98-1,00). The significance level adopted in this survey was p<0,05. The neighborhoods Centro and Estreito were considered with good mobility when compared with the neighborhoods Joao Paulo and Saco Grande. There were no significant difference among these neighborhoods in the dimensions of residential density and safety related to crimes. Finally, the Brazilian version of NEWS seemed to be a good measure of walkability in Florianopolis´ neighborhoods. The transcultural adaptation of this questionnaire was an important step to stimulate research in this field of study.
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