RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD ENVIRONMENT WALKABILITY SCALE (NEWS) – MALAY VERSION

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Background: The Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) was originally developed by the researchers of the International Physical Activity and the Environment Network (IPEN) to assess residents’ perceptions of the environment characteristics in their neighbourhood. Widely used in several countries, the objective of this paper is to translate and validate the questionnaire and determine its reliability for use among local residents in Malaysia.

Materials and Methods: The questionnaire was translated from English to Malay and another back-translation was conducted. The local research team verified the quality of the translated and back-translated questionnaire and made cross-cultural adaptations to reflect the built environment of Malaysia. The translated instrument was distributed to 66 adults for self-administration, completed on two separate occasions two weeks apart. Confirmatory factor analysis and test-retest reliability indices were used to determine its validity and reliability.

Result: Test-retest reliability was moderate to good with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) ranging from 0.56 to 0.91. Items with lower ICCs had high percent agreement indicative of good reliability. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy value was 0.521, indicating a satisfactory factor analysis. Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant (p<0.001). Six factors were retained based on original questionnaire and guidelines, and the curve from Scree plot also began to flatten at factor 6.

Conclusion: The NEWS-Malay held adequate levels of factorial validity and reliability to be used for measuring perceived neighbourhood environment walkability among Malaysian adults.  

Keywords: Neighbourhood environment walkability scale (NEWS), walkability, physical activity, reliability, validity, Malay language