Table 2 Summary of recommendations for future research
From: The neighborhood social environment and physical activity: a systematic scoping review
Methodological Issue | Recommendation | Anticipated Improvements | |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Inconsistent terminology | Standardize terminology of the neighborhood social environmental using dimensions identified in this review (Fig. 2) when appropriate. | Compare results across studies. Synthesize the evidence. Increased understanding. |
2 | Identification of the social environment | Clearly indicate that the construct is a neighborhood social environmental construct. | Recognize research studies exploring the phenomenon. Compare results across studies. Synthesize the evidence. Increased understanding. |
3 | Abundant measures | Use measurement tools and methods that are specific, rigorous and validated for the neighborhood social environmental construct of interest. Standardize measurement methods in the field. When using common methods/measurement tools be cautious about altering the approach through data collection (e.g. selecting only certain questions of a scale) or analysis (e.g. using factor analysis or generating categorical variables) that may make your results more difficult to compare. | Compare results across studies. Synthesize the evidence. Increased understanding. |
4 | Level of measurement | When appropriate, employ measurement strategies that facilitate neighborhood-level measurement. Use neighborhood definitions that are specific to your hypothesis (i.e., environment exposure, outcome and causal processes) | Improved rigor of measurement. Increased understanding. |
5 | Study design | Use of diverse study designs (e.g. longitudinal and quasi, natural or fully experimental research). | Increased ability to determine causality. Increased understanding. |