ArticleInternational journal of health geographics2021
Adapting the SPOTLIGHT Virtual Audit Tool to assess food and activity environments relevant for adolescents: a validity and reliability study.
Article in International journal of health geographics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Measuring Street Built Environments for Children's Use: A Systematic Review of Measurement Tools.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Validity and reliability of the virtual audit tool for estimating built-environment characteristics in Taiwan.International journal of health geographics · 2025Article
- Virtual Assessment of Physical Activity-Related Built Environment in Soweto, South Africa: What Is the Role of Contextual Familiarity?Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2024Article
- Meteorological gaps in audits of pedestrian environments: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Agreement between a web collaborative dataset and an administrative dataset to assess the retail food environment in Mexico.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Mediators of parental educational differences in the intake of carbonated sugar-sweetened soft drinks among adolescents, and the moderating role of neighbourhood income.Nutrition journal · 2023Article
- Neighborhood deprivation, built environment, and overweight in adolescents in the city of Oslo.BMC public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhysical inactivity and unhealthy diet are key behavioral determinants underlying obesity. The neighborhood environment represents an important arena for modifying these behaviors, and hence reliable and valid tools to measure it are needed. Most existing virtual audit tools have been designed to assess either food or activity environments deemed relevant for adults. Thus, there is a need for a tool that combines the assessment of food and activity environments, and which focuses on aspects of the environment relevant for youth.
objectiveThe aims of the present study were: (a) to adapt the SPOTLIGHT Virtual Audit Tool (S-VAT) developed to assess characteristics of the built environment deemed relevant for adults for use in an adolescent population, (b) to assess the tool's inter- and intra-rater reliability, and (c) to assess its criterion validity by comparing the virtual audit to a field audit.
methodsThe tool adaptation was based on literature review and on results of a qualitative survey investigating how adolescents perceived the influence of the environment on dietary and physical activity behaviors. Sixty streets (148 street segments) in six neighborhoods were randomly selected as the study sample. Two raters assessed the inter- and intra-rater reliability and criterion validity, comparing the virtual audit tool to a field audit. The results were presented as percentage agreement and Cohen's kappa (κ).
resultsIntra-rater agreement was found to be moderate to almost perfect (κ = 0.44-0.96) in all categories, except in the category aesthetics (κ = 0.40). Inter-rater agreement between auditors ranged from fair to substantial for all categories (κ = 0.24-0.80). Criterion validity was found to be moderate to almost perfect (κ = 0.56-0.82) for most categories, except aesthetics and grocery stores (κ = 0.26-0.35).
conclusionThe adapted version of the S-VAT can be used to provide reliable and valid data on built environment characteristics deemed relevant for physical activity and dietary behavior among adolescents.
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