TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental profile of a community's health (EPOCH)
T2 - An instrument to measure environmental determinants of cardiovascular health in five countries
AU - Chow, Clara K.
AU - Lock, Karen
AU - Madhavan, Manisha
AU - Corsi, Daniel J.
AU - Gilmore, Anna B.
AU - Subramanian, S. V.
AU - Li, Wei
AU - Swaminathan, Sumathi
AU - Lopez-Jaramillo, Patricio
AU - Avezum, Alvaro
AU - Lear, Scott A.
AU - Dagenais, Gilles
AU - Teo, Koon
AU - Mckee, Martin
AU - Yusuf, Salim
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Background: The environment in which people live is known to be important in influencing diet, physical activity, smoking, psychosocial and other risk factors for cardiovascular (CV) disease. However no instrument exists that evaluates communities for these multiple environmental factors and is suitable for use across different communities, regions and countries. This report describes the design and reliability of an instrument to measure environmental determinants of CV risk factors. Method/Principal Findings: The Environmental Profile of Community Health (EPOCH) instrument comprises two parts: (I) an assessment of the physical environment, and (II) an interviewer-administered questionnaire to collect residents' perceptions of their community. We examined the inter-rater reliability amongst 3 observers from each region of the direct observation component of the instrument (EPOCH I) in 93 rural and urban communities in 5 countries (Canada, Colombia, Brazil, China and India). Data collection using the EPOCH instrument was feasible in all communities. Reliability of the instrument was excellent (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient - ICC>0.75) for 24 of 38 items and fair to good (ICC 0.4-0.75) for 14 of 38 items. Conclusion: This report shows data collection with the EPOCH instrument is feasible and direct observation of ommunity measures reliable. The EPOCH instrument will enable further research on environmental determinants of health for population studies from a broad range of settings.
AB - Background: The environment in which people live is known to be important in influencing diet, physical activity, smoking, psychosocial and other risk factors for cardiovascular (CV) disease. However no instrument exists that evaluates communities for these multiple environmental factors and is suitable for use across different communities, regions and countries. This report describes the design and reliability of an instrument to measure environmental determinants of CV risk factors. Method/Principal Findings: The Environmental Profile of Community Health (EPOCH) instrument comprises two parts: (I) an assessment of the physical environment, and (II) an interviewer-administered questionnaire to collect residents' perceptions of their community. We examined the inter-rater reliability amongst 3 observers from each region of the direct observation component of the instrument (EPOCH I) in 93 rural and urban communities in 5 countries (Canada, Colombia, Brazil, China and India). Data collection using the EPOCH instrument was feasible in all communities. Reliability of the instrument was excellent (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient - ICC>0.75) for 24 of 38 items and fair to good (ICC 0.4-0.75) for 14 of 38 items. Conclusion: This report shows data collection with the EPOCH instrument is feasible and direct observation of ommunity measures reliable. The EPOCH instrument will enable further research on environmental determinants of health for population studies from a broad range of settings.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78650751698&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0014294
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0014294
M3 - Artículo Científico
C2 - 21170320
AN - SCOPUS:78650751698
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 5
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 12
M1 - e14294
ER -