Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs are designed to make walking and bicycling to school safe and accessible for children. Despite their growing popularity, few validated measures exist for assessing important outcomes such as type...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2010-05-01
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| Series: | BMC Public Health |
| Online Access: | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/257 |
| _version_ | 1828765355446632448 |
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| author | Baranowski Tom Watson Kathy Mendoza Jason A Nicklas Theresa A Uscanga Doris K Hanfling Marcus J |
| author_facet | Baranowski Tom Watson Kathy Mendoza Jason A Nicklas Theresa A Uscanga Doris K Hanfling Marcus J |
| author_sort | Baranowski Tom |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs are designed to make walking and bicycling to school safe and accessible for children. Despite their growing popularity, few validated measures exist for assessing important outcomes such as type of student transport or pedestrian safety behaviors. This research validated the SRTS school travel survey and a pedestrian safety behavior checklist.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fourth grade students completed a brief written survey on how they got to school that day with set responses. Test-retest reliability was obtained 3-4 hours apart. Convergent validity of the SRTS travel survey was assessed by comparison to parents' report. For the measure of pedestrian safety behavior, 10 research assistants observed 29 students at a school intersection for completion of 8 selected pedestrian safety behaviors. Reliability was determined in two ways: correlations between the research assistants' ratings to that of the Principal Investigator (PI) and intraclass correlations (ICC) across research assistant ratings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The SRTS travel survey had high test-retest reliability (κ = 0.97, n = 96, p < 0.001) and convergent validity (κ = 0.87, n = 81, p < 0.001). The pedestrian safety behavior checklist had moderate reliability across research assistants' ratings (ICC = 0.48) and moderate correlation with the PI (r = 0.55, p =< 0.01). When two raters simultaneously used the instrument, the ICC increased to 0.65. Overall percent agreement (91%), sensitivity (85%) and specificity (83%) were acceptable.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These validated instruments can be used to assess SRTS programs. The pedestrian safety behavior checklist may benefit from further formative work.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T06:47:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9e64945146b440748491a452658a55b1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2458 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T06:47:26Z |
| publishDate | 2010-05-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-9e64945146b440748491a452658a55b12022-12-22T01:17:02ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582010-05-0110125710.1186/1471-2458-10-257Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safetyBaranowski TomWatson KathyMendoza Jason ANicklas Theresa AUscanga Doris KHanfling Marcus J<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs are designed to make walking and bicycling to school safe and accessible for children. Despite their growing popularity, few validated measures exist for assessing important outcomes such as type of student transport or pedestrian safety behaviors. This research validated the SRTS school travel survey and a pedestrian safety behavior checklist.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fourth grade students completed a brief written survey on how they got to school that day with set responses. Test-retest reliability was obtained 3-4 hours apart. Convergent validity of the SRTS travel survey was assessed by comparison to parents' report. For the measure of pedestrian safety behavior, 10 research assistants observed 29 students at a school intersection for completion of 8 selected pedestrian safety behaviors. Reliability was determined in two ways: correlations between the research assistants' ratings to that of the Principal Investigator (PI) and intraclass correlations (ICC) across research assistant ratings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The SRTS travel survey had high test-retest reliability (κ = 0.97, n = 96, p < 0.001) and convergent validity (κ = 0.87, n = 81, p < 0.001). The pedestrian safety behavior checklist had moderate reliability across research assistants' ratings (ICC = 0.48) and moderate correlation with the PI (r = 0.55, p =< 0.01). When two raters simultaneously used the instrument, the ICC increased to 0.65. Overall percent agreement (91%), sensitivity (85%) and specificity (83%) were acceptable.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These validated instruments can be used to assess SRTS programs. The pedestrian safety behavior checklist may benefit from further formative work.</p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/257 |
| spellingShingle | Baranowski Tom Watson Kathy Mendoza Jason A Nicklas Theresa A Uscanga Doris K Hanfling Marcus J Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety BMC Public Health |
| title | Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety |
| title_full | Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety |
| title_fullStr | Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety |
| title_full_unstemmed | Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety |
| title_short | Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety |
| title_sort | validity of instruments to assess students travel and pedestrian safety |
| url | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/257 |
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