Revising the senior walking environmental assessment tool.
BACKGROUND
The Senior Walking Environmental Assessment Tool (SWEAT), an instrument for measuring built environmental features associated with physical activity of older adults, was revised to create an easier-to-use tool for use by practitioners and community members.


METHODS
Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the modified instrument (SWEAT-R) was assessed in Portland, Oregon in 2007. Five trained observers audited street segments in 12 neighborhoods, resulting in 361 pairs of audits, including 63 repeated audits.


RESULTS
Overall, 88% and 75% of items assessed had good or excellent inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, respectively. The revised instrument required less time to complete than the original instrument, while obtaining more information.


CONCLUSIONS
SWEAT-R provides easy to gather, reliable data for use in community-based audits of built environment in relation to walking among older adults.
Michael
Yvonne L
YL
Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA. michaely@ohsu.edu
Keast
Erin M
EM
Chaudhury
Habib
H
Day
Kristen
K
Mahmood
Atiya
A
Sarte
Ann F I
AF
D000368:Aged; D004779:Environment Design / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D016138:Walking