Development and Testing of the Church Environment Audit Tool

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Environmental Health
• Health Promotion

Background:

• Faith-based settings play a significant role in community health.
• Assessing the physical environment for physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) opportunities is crucial for targeted interventions.
• Existing tools may not adequately capture the unique environmental factors within faith-based organizations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and reliability testing of a novel tool for evaluating the physical environment of faith-based settings.
• To assess opportunities for physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) within these settings.
• To establish the reliability and efficiency of the developed tool.

Main Methods:

• A multistage development process involving literature review, stakeholder input, expert feedback, and pilot testing.
• The final tool included sections on indoor/outdoor PA opportunities, food/beverage availability, food preparation facilities, and media.
• Interrater reliability (IRR) was assessed using Kappa statistics and percent agreement across 54 churches.

Main Results:

• Of 218 items, 102 were assessed for IRR, with percent agreement exceeding 80% for all.
• Forty-six of the assessed items demonstrated substantial to almost perfect agreement (Kappa > 0.60).
• The tool proved reliable and efficient for evaluating church environments.

Conclusions:

• The developed tool is a reliable and efficient method for assessing the physical environment of faith-based settings.
• It effectively identifies potential intervention points to promote physical activity and healthy eating.
• Future research should explore its application in understanding how church environments impact diverse health outcomes.