Development, reliability, and validity of an urban trail use survey.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the Research on Urban Trail Environments (ROUTES) Trail Use Questionnaire.


METHODS
Test-retest reliability was assessed by repeated measures (study 1); validity was assessed by comparing reported trail use to self-reported and objectively measured physical activity (PA) levels (study 2).


METHODS
Study 1: a religious institution situated near a Los Angeles trail. Study 2: 1-mile buffer zones surrounding three urban trails (Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles).


METHODS
Thirty-four adults between 40 and 60 years of age (10 men and 24 women) completed the ROUTES questionnaire twice (study 1). Study 2 participants were 490 adults (48% female and 73% white), mean age 48 years.


METHODS
Trail use for recreation and transportation purposes, time and distance spent on trails, and characteristics of the trail and other trail users. PA was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and accelerometry.


METHODS
Pearson correlation coefficients and kappa statistics were used for test-retest reliability for continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Generalized linear models were used to evaluate hypotheses on PA comparing trail users and nonusers.


RESULTS
Test-retest statistics were acceptable (kappa = .57, r = .66). Validity was supported by correlations between indices of trail use with self-reported PA and accelerometry, and significant group differences between trail users and nonusers in PA levels.


CONCLUSIONS
The ROUTES Trail Use Questionnaire demonstrated good reliability and validity.
Spruijt-Metz
Donna
D
Institute of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, University of Southern California, Alhambra, California 91803, USA. dmetz@usc.edu
Wolch
Jennifer
J
Jerrett
Michael
M
Byrne
Jason
J
Hsieh
Stephanie
S
Myles
Ranell
R
Xie
Bin
B
Wang
Lili
L
Chou
Chih-Ping
CP
Reynolds
Kim D
KD
D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002641:Chicago; D003625:Data Collection; D004779:Environment Design; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*