Indicadores dos atributos físicos e sociais da vizinhança por meio da Observação Social Sistemática

Abstract

Introduction: Place of residence is strongly shaped by social position, suggesting that neighborhood characteristics is an important contributor to health inequities. Objective: To build indicators of the physical and social environment in an urban context using variables obtained by Systematic Social Observation (SSO) method and analyze them according to a geocoded Index of Health Vulnerability (HVI). Methods: The instrument was developed in order to objectively capture the physical and social characteristics of the catchment area of residency of participants of two health districts residents survey in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Besides, it aimed to determine and quantify the correlation between these characteristics and the health social vulnerability of the area (HVI). The observation was made by SSO method that can be defined as the direct observation of physical conditions and social interactions that occur in the place of residence or neighborhood. Data were collected between April and June 2011. Households were geocoded and the segments that comprised each neighborhood were sampled systematically. In building simpler indicators, ratios of the number of items observed by residence for each segment were calculated. In the construction of composite indicators principal components via covariance matrix were used. Results: The final sample consisted of 1,295 street segments nested in 147 neighborhoods. The average length of the segments was 122.2 meters (± 44.6), each neighborhood had an average of 8.8 sectors (± 2.0). The following domains were created: 1.street conditions and transit items; 2.mobility; 3.place to practice physical activity and leisure; 4.housing and property, 5.appearance; 6.physical disorder, 7.safety/security and 8.services. Stratified by HVI, all of them showed a doseresponse.As vulnerability increades the index showed it worse. However, for the low prevalent indicators related to place to practice physical activity and leisure no significant differences were encoutered. Conclusions: The indicators have shown consistent behavior on different strata of health vulnerability index;showing compatible levels within each domain and subdomain created. However, possibly due the extremely low prevalence of conditions for physical activity all over the sample no significant difference considerating the health vulnerability of the areas.