Small‐area ecological research is critical to inform place‐based interventions at the neighborhood level; however, objective measurement of the social context has been limited. The current study extends the application of the Neighborhood Inventory for Environmental Typology (NIfETy) through the development and evaluation of measures of social context for a longer period of observation (3 years) and at a larger area of aggregation (census tract clusters) compared to previous studies using measures at the block‐face level from a single observation. Observations from the 172‐item inventory were collected from a random sample of block faces (n = 793) in Baltimore City annually over a three‐year period. Through a multistep process including replication of previous measures, data reduction, and factor analysis, six unique neighborhood‐level indices were generated to describe the environmental context: drug and alcohol use, violence, physical disorder, epicenter, youth activity, and improvements. An assessment of measurement consistency and validity provided support for some indices, while others had notable limitations. These indices can assist local policymakers and public health practitioners assessing the needs of individual neighborhoods and evaluating the effectiveness of place‐based interventions designed to improve the neighborhood environment and population health outcomes.

中文翻译：

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巴尔的摩市社区层面社会进程的测量。

小区域生态研究对于为社区层面的基于地点的干预措施提供信息至关重要；然而，对社会背景的客观衡量是有限的。当前的研究通过开发和评估较长观察期（3年）和较大聚集区域（人口普查区集群）的社会背景衡量指标，扩展了邻里环境类型学调查（NIfETy）的应用。先前的研究使用来自单一观察的块面水平的测量。 三年期间，每年从巴尔的摩市的街区面 ( n = 793)的随机样本中收集 172 项库存的观察结果。通过包括复制先前措施、数据缩减和因素分析在内的多步骤过程，生成了六个独特的社区级指数来描述环境背景：吸毒和酗酒、暴力、身体障碍、震中、青年活动和改进。对测量一致性和有效性的评估为一些指数提供了支持，而其他指数则有明显的局限性。这些指数可以帮助当地政策制定者和公共卫生从业者评估各个社区的需求，并评估旨在改善社区环境和人口健康结果的基于地方的干预措施的有效性。