Innovation in the Measurement of Community Contextual Features

描述（由申请人提供）：准确测量个人生活和互动的社会背景对于理解许多重要的福祉结果非常重要。尽管社区背景和活动空间数据与社会，行为和医学研究相关，但一些问题对数据的收集提出了挑战。首先，很难收集精确的邻里背景和活动空间的空间测量，特别是在没有全面的数字地址系统的情况下。收集邻里环境和活动空间数据的第二个挑战是，仪器没有充分利用视觉线索，地图和图像，可能会增加受访者的空间回忆。该项目的目标直接针对这些挑战。首先，该项目设计了一个创新的计算机辅助采访（CAI）工具，可以很容易地被访问者和受访者使用。该仪器将能够以答卷人提供的任何精确程度测量地物的位置，从精确点到具有较高不确定性的一般空间位置。第二，本项目正式比较使用CAI仪器收集的数据的质量，使用标准的纸质仪器收集的数据。第三，为了展示这些数据如何用于推进知识，我们测试了假设，比较了我们研究地点重要人口亚群之间的住宅社区背景和活动空间的重叠。居民区环境与活动空间的不同程度是一个重要因素，因为扩展的活动空间可以理论化为变化的机制。我们的假设检验可能表明，活动空间是婚姻差异背后的因素，生育，寻求健康，以及在许多发展中环境中迅速变化的其他行为。该项目能够通过利用最近可负担得起的两项重要技术来实现这些目标：高度详细的基于实地的地理信息系统（GIS）和多点触摸显示器。我们希望这个新工具能够改善收集邻里环境和活动空间数据的调查人员的测量方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Accurate measurement of the social context in which individuals live and interact is important for understanding many important well-being outcomes. Despite the relevance of neighborhood context and activity space data for social, behavioral, and medical research, several issues challenge the collection of data. First, precise spatial measures of neighborhood context and activity spaces are difficult to collect, particularly in settings without comprehensive number address systems. A second challenge to collecting neighborhood context and activity space data is that instruments have not taken full advantage of the visual cues, maps, and imagery that are likely to increase respondent spatial recall. This project's aims directly address these challenges. First, the project designs an innovative computer assisted interview (CAI) instrument that can easily be used by both interviewers and respondents. The instrument will be able to measure the location of features at whatever level of precision the respondent provides, from exact points to general spatial locations with higher degrees of uncertainty. Second, this project formally compares the quality of data collected using the CAI instrument to data collected using a standard paper-based instrument. Third, to demonstrate how these data can be used to advance knowledge, we test hypotheses comparing the overlap in residential neighborhood context and activity spaces among important population subgroups at our study site. The degree to which residential neighborhood context differs from activity spaces is an important factor because expanded activity spaces can be theorized as a mechanism of change. Our tests of hypotheses may suggest additional research in activity spaces as factors behind differentials in marriage, fertility, health-seeking, and othe behaviors that are rapidly changing in many developing settings. The project is able to meet these aims by taking advantage of the recent affordability of two important technologies: highly detailed field-based geographic information systems (GIS) and multi-touch displays. We expect this new tool to improve measurement methods for investigators who collect neighborhood context and activity space data.