An ecometric analysis of neighbourhood cohesion.
An ecometric analysis of neighbourhood cohesion.
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DOI：
10.1186/1478-7954-4-17
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发表时间：
2006-12-21
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Dunstan, Frank D
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fone, David L;Farewell, Daniel M;Dunstan, Frank D
背景：人们普遍认为社会环境对健康有重要影响，但如何衡量社会环境中可能将居住社区与健康结果联系起来的特定因素还不太确定。该研究的目的是检查巴克纳邻里凝聚力量表的改编版本所捕获的基本结构，并通过将生态计量方法与五点量表的序数模型相结合来评估该量表在小区域层面的可靠性。 方法：对卡菲利健康和社会需求研究的 11,078 名参与者进行数据分析，这些参与者是从卡菲利县的 325 个英国人口普查计数区中抽取的。英国威尔士自治市镇。感兴趣的回答来自 15 个问题项目，旨在捕捉邻里凝聚力的不同方面。因子分析用于识别邻里凝聚力项目反应的基础结构。使用多级生态计量模型，这些序数反应中存在的变异性被分解为情境、成分、项目级和残差成分。 结果：识别了标记为邻里归属感和社会凝聚力的两个构建体，并在多级结构的每个层面对这两种构建体的变异性进行了建模。邻里归属感和社会凝聚力分量表的邻里内相关性分别为 6.4% 和 1.0%。鉴于样本量较大，可以可靠地估计上下文邻域凝聚力分数。观察到的量表项目活动发生频率的巨大变化表明这两个子量表具有理想的生态计量特性。此外，大多数邻里之间的差异不能用受访者个人的社会人口特征来解释。 结论：使用因子分析和扩展至序数尺度的生态计量分析对适应的邻里凝聚力量表的属性进行评估表明，这些项目可以在个体之间进行精细区分。然而，为了准确估计上下文邻里凝聚力，需要大样本量。因此，该量表适合在未来的社区和健康研究中用于测量小区域层面的社区凝聚力。
BACKGROUND: It is widely believed that the social environment has an important influence on health, but there is less certainty about how to measure specific factors within the social environment that could link the neighbourhood of residence to a health outcome. The objectives of the study were to examine the underlying constructs captured by an adapted version of Buckner's neighbourhood cohesion scale, and to assess the reliability of the scale at the small-area-level by combining ecometric methodology with ordinal modelling of a five-point scale.METHODS: Data were analysed from 11,078 participants in the Caerphilly Health and Social Needs Study, who were sampled from within 325 UK census enumeration districts in Caerphilly county borough, Wales, UK. The responses of interest came from 15 question items designed to capture different facets of neighbourhood cohesion. Factor analysis was used to identify constructs underlying the neighbourhood cohesion item responses. Using a multilevel ecometric model, the variability present in these ordinal responses was decomposed into contextual, compositional, item-level and residual components.RESULTS: Two constructs labelled neighbourhood belonging and social cohesion were identified, and variability in both constructs was modelled at each level of the multilevel structure. The intra-neighbourhood correlations were 6.4% and 1.0% for the neighbourhood belonging and social cohesion subscales, respectively. Given the large sample size, contextual neighbourhood cohesion scores can be estimated reliably. The wide variation in the observed frequency of occurence of the scale item activities suggests that the two subscales have desirable ecometric properties. Further, the majority of between-neighbourhood variation is not explained by the socio-demographic characteristics of the individual respondents.CONCLUSION: Assessment of the properties of the adapted neighbourhood cohesion scale using factor analysis and ecometric analysis extended to an ordinal scale has shown that the items allow fine discrimination between individuals. However, large sample sizes are needed in order to accurately estimate contextual neighbourhood cohesion. The scale is therefore appropriate for use in the measurement of neighbourhood cohesion at small-area-level in future studies of neighbourhoods and health.