PHL Research and Data-Gathering within Resource Limitations

In its inaugural manuscript, Public Health Liberation emphasized research through diverse approaches to include quality formal academic research and data-gathering. It sought to democratize how research is conducted by relying on academic and community partnerships to assess sources of harm to community health. Several approaches were discussed related to air quality monitoring, tracking community health outcomes, resident displacement, and worsening social determinants of health. Led by founders of Public Health Liberation, Project Southwest was an unfunded cross-sectional study on neighborhood change and health. The recently published manuscript discusses new measures for studying the effects of intense change in the built environments.

Abstract - Read Manuscript

Background

Gentrification is a type of neighborhood change (NC) that causes demographic shifts and improvement in the built environment. Adverse health outcomes associated with NC have not been consistently established in the literature. Yet, major methodological barriers define this field of study including lack of tailored and culturally relevant measures. This aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of novel and adapted NC measures that sought to improve appropriateness for all literacy levels, to enhance survey efficiency, and to assess features of the built environment.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study in a highly gentrifying neighborhood in Washington, DC using 17 scales and indexes on neighborhood attachment, effects on family/friends, perceived impact on certain population, and assessment of intensity of NC. We assessed reliability and validity to include tests of internal consistency, split-half reliability testing, and correlation analyses. We sought dimension reduction through factor analysis to understand areas of NC.

Results

The analytic sample included 146 respondents. The multiitem scales — Neighborhood Attachment (NA), Ability to Influence Neighborhood Change (AINC), and Heightened Perceptions of Neighborhood Change (HPNC) — performed well based on reliability and validity analyses. The factors analysis resulted in three components on NC: positive perceptions of NC, social dimension of NC, and NC change intensity and decline.

Discussion

Given the promising psychometric quality of measures, this study opens new pathways for conducting gentrification health research by providing new tools and methods for tailoring.

Recommended Citation

Williams C, Woodard N, Chao-Li Kuo C. Reliability, Validity, and Exploratory Factor Analyses of Gentrification Health Research Measures. Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery. 2022; 2(4). doi: 10.53785/2769-2779.1134.