Abstract
BackgroundIt is widely believed that the social environment has an important influence on health, but there is less certainty about how to measure specific factors within the social environment that could link the neighbourhood of residence to a health outcome. The objectives of the study were to examine the underlying constructs captured by an adapted version of Buckner's neighbourhood cohesion scale, and to assess the reliability of the scale at the small-area-level by combining ecometric methodology with ordinal modelling of a five-point scale.MethodsData were analysed from 11,078 participants in the Caerphilly Health and Social Needs Study, who were sampled from within 325 UK census enumeration districts in Caerphilly county borough, Wales, UK. The responses of interest came from 15 question items designed to capture different facets of neighbourhood cohesion. Factor analysis was used to identify constructs underlying the neighbourhood cohesion item responses. Using a multilevel ecometric model, the variability present in these ordinal responses was decomposed into contextual, compositional, item-level and residual components.ResultsTwo constructs labelled neighbourhood belonging and social cohesion were identified, and variability in both constructs was modelled at each level of the multilevel structure. The intra-neighbourhood correlations were 6.4% and 1.0% for the neighbourhood belonging and social cohesion subscales, respectively. Given the large sample size, contextual neighbourhood cohesion scores can be estimated reliably. The wide variation in the observed frequency of occurence of the scale item activities suggests that the two subscales have desirable ecometric properties. Further, the majority of between-neighbourhood variation is not explained by the socio-demographic characteristics of the individual respondents.ConclusionAssessment of the properties of the adapted neighbourhood cohesion scale using factor analysis and ecometric analysis extended to an ordinal scale has shown that the items allow fine discrimination between individuals. However, large sample sizes are needed in order to accurately estimate contextual neighbourhood cohesion. The scale is therefore appropriate for use in the measurement of neighbourhood cohesion at small-area-level in future studies of neighbourhoods and health.
Highlights
It is widely believed that the social environment has an important influence on health, but there is less certainty about how to measure specific factors within the social environment that could link the neighbourhood of residence to a health outcome
It is widely believed that the social environment has an important influence on health and well-being [2], but it is less certain how to conceptualise, define, operationalise and measure specific factors and pathways within the social environment that link the neighbourhood of residence to health outcome [3]
Seven questions were included in the first component; the two largest factor loadings were for the items 1 ('Overall, I am attracted to living in this neighbourhood') and 5 ('Given the opportunity, I would like to move out of this neighbourhood', reverse coded)
Summary
It is widely believed that the social environment has an important influence on health, but there is less certainty about how to measure specific factors within the social environment that could link the neighbourhood of residence to a health outcome. It is widely believed that the social environment has an important influence on health and well-being [2], but it is less certain how to conceptualise, define, operationalise and measure specific factors and pathways within the social environment that link the neighbourhood of residence to health outcome [3]. Several studies have suggested a beneficial effect of social capital on various measures of health [5], there is a long-standing debate in the literature on the concepts and measurement of social capital [6], and still a lack of agreement on whether social capital is a function of individuals and their social interactions within social networks or whether it is a collective attribute of communities and societies [7]. Social capital should be measured and analysed in empirical studies of social capital and health at both individual and contextual levels in a multilevel framework, so that joint individual- and group-level mechanisms can be explored [8]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
