Development and validation of an instrument to measure perceived neighbourhood quality in Taiwan

• Published in: Journal of epidemiology and community health (1979) Vol. 56; no. 7; pp. 492 - 496
• Main Authors: Yang, M-J, Yang, M-S, Shih, C-H, Kawachi, I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.07.2002; BMJ Publishing Group; BMJ; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Group
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; Communities; Community; Community health; community mental health; Consumer Behavior; Depressive disorders; Environmental security; Epidemiology; Factor analysis; Female; General aspects; Health; Health aspects; Health care industry; Health Status; Health Status Indicators; Households; Humans; Illiteracy; Inner city; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Mental Health; Mental health care; Methodology; Middle Aged; Neighborhood; Neighborhoods; neighbourhood; Perceptions; Polls & surveys; Population; Public health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Quality; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Residence Characteristics; Rural areas; Rural Health; Social aspects; Social capital; Socioeconomic Factors; Studies; Suburban areas; Suburban Health; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Taiwan; Theory and Methods; Tropical medicine; Urban Health; Asia; Taiwan; Performance evaluation; Human; Validation; Social perception; Methodology; Quality; Neighbourhood; Measurement method; Epidemiology; Public health
• ISSN: 0143-005X; 1470-2738
• DOI: 10.1136/jech.56.7.492

Study objectives: Social epidemiologists have hypothesised that neighbourhood quality may exert an important contextual influence on mental and physical health. However, validated instruments do not exist for measuring neighbourhood quality in Taiwan. A self reported instrument to measure perceived neighbourhood quality in Taiwan was developed and tested. Design: Community survey. Setting: Southern Taiwan, including the metropolitan Kaohsiung area and eight surrounding communities, representing urban, suburban, and rural districts. Participants: A total of 1084 residents, aged 18 to 75, were surveyed during 1999 to 2000. Main results: Using factor analysis with varimax rotation, three subscales explained 54.8% of the variance in our 15 item Neighbourhood Quality Index: perceived social capital (Cronbach α=0.84), perceived security (α=0.78), and adequacy of services and facilities (α=0.67). Lower perceived neighbourhood social capital (odds ratio, OR, 1.26; 95% CI: 1.21 to 1.32), lower neighbourhood security (OR 1.37; 95% CI: 1.26 to 1.48), and inadequate neighbourhood services and facilities (OR 1.17; 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.28) were all related to higher residential dissatisfaction. Conclusions: A Neighbourhood Quality Index was developed for use in Taiwan with good internal consistency and test-retest reliability, as well as convergent validity. Future studies will examine the association between this index and measures of individual mental and physical health.