title: Perceived neighborhood problems: multilevel analysis to evaluate psychometric properties in a Southern adult Brazilian population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Physical attributes of the places in which people live, as well as their perceptions of them, may be important health determinants. The perception of place in which people dwell may impact on individual health and may be a more telling indicator for individual health than objective neighborhood characteristics. This paper aims to evaluate psychometric and ecometric properties of a scale on the perceptions of neighborhood problems in adults from Florianopolis, Southern Brazil.
  
  
  METHODS
  Individual, census tract level (per capita monthly familiar income) and neighborhood problems perception (physical and social disorders) variables were investigated. Multilevel models (items nested within persons, persons nested within neighborhoods) were run to assess ecometric properties of variables assessing neighborhood problems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was 85.3%, (1,720 adults). Participants were distributed in 63 census tracts. Two scales were identified using 16 items: Physical Problems and Social Disorder. The ecometric properties of the scales satisfactory: 0.24 to 0.28 for the intra-class correlation and 0.94 to 0.96 for reliability. Higher values on the scales of problems in the physical and social domains were associated with younger age, more length of time residing in the same neighborhood and lower census tract income level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings support the usefulness of these scales to measure physical and social disorder problems in neighborhoods.
authors.forename: Doroteia Aparecida
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Höfelmann
authors.forename: Ana V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Diez-Roux
authors.forename: José Leopoldo Ferreira
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Antunes
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, School of Dentistry, the University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. marco.peres@adelaide.edu.au.
authors.forename: Marco Aurélio
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Peres
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult