Objective : To translate the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale into Japanese (ANEWS-J) and to examine its reliability.
Methods : One hundred sixty three community residents (male: 38.7%, age: 21-69 years old) of 600 who were randomly selected from the registry of residential addresses of Taitoh Ward in Tokyo and Fujinomiya City in Shizuoka Prefecture, responded to mail survey including ANEWS-J. Seventy-seven of 163 answered same questionnaire twice with ten days interval to examine the test-retest reliability.The questionnaire was translated into Japanese and fixed through the processes of preliminary test, backtranslation into English and discussion with authors of original version.Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated for the evaluation of reliability of ANEWS-J.
Results : ICCs of the eight subscales of ANEWS-J were residential density; r=0.95 (95% confidence interval; 0.93-0.97), land use mix - diversity; r=0.96 (0.94-0.98), land use mix - access; r=0.90 (0.84-0.94), street connectivity; r=0.83 (0.74-0.90), sidewalk / bike lane; r=0.82 (0.71-0.89), aesthetics; r=0.85 (0.76-0.91), traffic safety; r=0.81 (0.70-0.89), crime safety; r=0.76 (0.62-0.86).Stratified analyses by gender and residential district showed satisfactory reproducibility of the subscales (r=0.63-0.97).
Conclusion : Acceptable reliabilities of all eight subscales of ANEWS-J were confirmed in this study.
