title: Alcohol in urban streetscapes: a comparison of the use of Google Street View and on-street observation.
abstract: Alcohol-related harm is a major global health issue, and controls on alcohol marketing are one intervention utilized by governments. This study investigated the use of Google Street View (GSV) as a novel research method for collecting alcohol-related data in the urban environment.
  
  
  
  The efficacy of GSV and on-street observation by observer teams was compared by surveying 400 m stretches of 12 streets in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Data on alcohol sale, alcohol-related advertising, health promotion materials, regulatory information and visible alcohol consumption were collected.
  
  
  
  A total of 403 retailers with evidence of alcohol sales and 1161 items of alcohol-related communication were identified in on-street observation. Of the latter, 1028 items (89 %) were for alcohol marketing and 133 (11 %) were for alcohol-related health promotion and alcohol regulation. GSV was found to be a less sensitive tool than on-street observation with only 50 % of the alcohol venues identified and 52 % of the venue-associated brand marketing identified. A high degree of inter-observer reliability was generally found between pairs of observers e.g., for the detection of alcohol retail venues the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.93 (95 % CI: 0.78 to 0.98) for on-street observation and 0.85 (95 % CI: 0.49 to 0.96) for using GSV.
  
  
  
  GSV does not seem suitable for the comprehensive study of the influences on alcohol consumption in the urban streetscape. However, it may still have value for large, static objects in the environment and be more time efficient than traditional on-street observation measures, especially when used to collect data across a wide geographical area. Furthermore, GSV might become a more useful research tool in settings with better image quality (such as more 'footpath views') and with more regularly updated GSV imagery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Clews
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Roza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brajkovich-Payne
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dwight
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Ayob
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmad Fauzul
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Madeleine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Carleton
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deroles
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Ruby
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Faulkner
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Furniss
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Anahera
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herewini
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Daymen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huband
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Nerissa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Cho Wool
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Jacky
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand. nick.wilson@otago.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, PO Box 7343, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thomson
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004779:Environment Design; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing; D009520:New Zealand; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014504:Urban Health
keywords: Alcohol; Google Street View; Health promotion; Marketing