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Utility of passive photography to objectively audit built environment features of active transport journeys : an observational study
Oliver, Melody Doherty, Aiden Kelly, Paul Badland, Hannah Mavoa, Suzanne Shepherd, Janine Kerr, Jacqueline Marshall, Simon Hamilton, Alexander Foster, Charlie
Oliver, Melody
Doherty, Aiden
Kelly, Paul
Badland, Hannah
Mavoa, Suzanne
Shepherd, Janine
Kerr, Jacqueline
Marshall, Simon
Hamilton, Alexander
Foster, Charlie
Abstract
Background
Active transport can contribute to physical activity accumulation and improved health in adults. The built environment is an established associate of active transport behaviours; however, assessment of environmental features encountered during journeys remains challenging. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of wearable cameras to objectively audit and quantify environmental features along work-related walking and cycling routes.
Methods
A convenience sample of employed adults was recruited in New Zealand, in June 2011. Participants wore a SenseCam for all journeys over three weekdays and completed travel diaries and demographic questionnaires. SenseCam images for work-related active transport journeys were coded for presence of environmental features hypothesised to be related to active transport. Differences in presence of features by transport mode and in participant-reported and SenseCam-derived journey duration were determined using two-sample tests of proportion and an independent samples t-test, respectively.
Results
Fifteen adults participated in the study, yielding 1749 SenseCam images from 30 work-related active transport journeys for coding. Significant differences in presence of features were found between walking and cycling journeys. Almost a quarter of images were uncodeable due to being too dark to determine features. There was a non-significant tendency for respondents to under-report their journey duration.
Conclusion
This study provides proof of concept for the use of the SenseCam to capture built environment data in real time that may be related to active transportation. Further work is required to test and refine coding methodologies across a range of settings, travel behaviours, and demographic groups.
Keywords
Walking, Cycling, SenseCam, Measure, Physical activity
Date
2013
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
12
Issue
20
Page Range
1-7
Article Number
ACU Department
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 2.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2013 Oliver et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.