Development of neighborhood observations checklist (NOC) for developing countries: Themes identified for a city of a developing country

Development of Neighborhood Observations Checklist (NOC) for developing countries: Themes identified for a city of a developing country

 Romaina Iqbal¹ and Naveed Janjua²

1. Departments of community Health Sciences and Medicine, Aga Khan University, Pakistan
2. Epidemiologist, Epidemiology Services, BC Center for Disease Control, Canada

 Background: Attributes of neighborhoods influence health status of individuals. To assess the impact of neighborhood attributes on health we need local context specific observation checklists. We conducted focus group discussions (FDGs) and surveys of neighborhoods in Karachi, Pakistan to develop a NOC.

Methods: We conducted 6 focus groups discussions (FDG), each consisting of 6-8 participants to generate themes that would help define characteristics of different neighborhoods in Karachi, Pakistan. Our FDGs included groups of public health students, medical students, data collectors working at our department and a group of drivers.  We listed the emerging themes and organized them in order of their frequency of occurrence and emphasis. Then we conducted a survey of three different neighborhoods in Karachi to add attributes that might have been missed in the FGDs.  

Results: Security measures adopted at the neighborhood as well as household level e.g. barriers at the end of the street and devices for protection of houses, pollution e.g. betel nut spit stains, housing structures e.g. condition of residential units, condition of roads/streets e.g. presence of street lamps, social interaction occurring on the streets e.g. gender mix of the children and non-residential land use mix e.g. presence of encroachments were some of the themes identified.

 Conclusion:

The themes identified included both; items that were part of previous checklists from developed countries and many new themes that are local context specific. Our work suggests that region specific NOCs need to be developed for assessing neighborhood characteristics that influence an individuals’ health.