Concordance and correlates of direct and indirect built environment measurement among minority women

Purpose. To measure the concordance of directly and indirectly measured neighborhood attributes and to determine the correlates of the concordance between directly and indirectly measured built environment attributes. Design. Environmental cross-sectional design. Setting. Urban and suburban neighborhoods within Harris County, Houston, and Travis County, Austin, Texas. Subjects. Community-dwelling African-American and Hispanic or Latina women. Measures. Physical activity resource accessibility, path maintenance, and pedestrian and bicycle facilities were measured directly and indirectly. Directly or objectively measured neighborhood attributes were measured by the Physical Activity Resource Assessment and Pedestrian Environmental Data Scan instruments. Indirectly measured or self-reported neighborhood attributes were measured by the International Physical Activity Prevalence Study environmental survey module. Analysis. Logistic regression was used to measure the concordance between directly and indirectly measured neighborhood attributes with ethnicity as a covariate. Residual values were calculated to determine the strength and direction of concordance. Results. Participants' (N = 409) average body mass index (BMI) was classified as obese (MBMI = 34.5 kg/m², SD = 7.9), and the mean body fat percentage was 42.8% (SD = 7.1). The correlates BMI, body fat percentage, physical activity, and ethnicity were not significantly associated with any built environment attribute or concordance value, and none of our models significantly predicted indirectly measured built environment attributes. Conclusion. Being less familiar with certain built environment attributes may not be associated with weight status or physical activity levels among African-American and Hispanic or Latina women. (Am J Health Promot 2012;26[4]:239-244.).