Abstract
BackgroundAlcohol-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.MethodsThe 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.ResultsA 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.ConclusionsGSV 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.
Highlights
Alcohol-related harm is a major global health issue, and controls on alcohol marketing are one intervention utilized by governments
This study focused on the visual aspects in urban streetscapes of alcohol-related items and behavior
In areas with a range of levels of area deprivation, and six central business district (CBD) streets were purposefully selected to cover a broad range of suburban areas of different socioeconomic status (SES), and a range of areas within the central business district
Summary
Alcohol-related harm is a major global health issue, and controls on alcohol marketing are one intervention utilized by governments. There is evidence to indicate that exposure to various types of environmental contexts and imagery impacts on human health outcomes [1,2,3]. This study focused on the visual aspects in urban streetscapes of alcohol-related items and behavior. Alcohol misuse has a significant population harm impact, and is the sixth leading risk factor for health loss globally (99 million disability-adjusted life-years lost in 2013) [6]. There is evidence from longitudinal cohort studies in different countries showing an association exists between the exposure of youth and young adults to alcohol advertising and media, and subsequent drinking behavior [7,8,9]. Assessing people’s exposure to such environmental determinants of health remains a challenge in public health research [10, 11]. Assessments of environmental determinants have been carried out in person
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