Journal article
Mapping the visibility of smokers across a large capital city
Environmental research, v 180, 108888
Jan 2020
PMID: 31706598
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Smoking visibility may affect smoking norms with implications for tobacco initiation, particularly amongst youths. Understanding how smoking is distributed across urban environments would contribute to the design and implementation of tobacco control policies. Our objective is to estimate the visibility of smokers in a large urban area using a novel GIS-based methodological approach.
We used systematic social observation to gather information about the presence of smokers in the environment within a representative sample of census tracts in Madrid city in 2016. We designed a GIS-based methodology to estimate the visibility of smokers throughout the whole city using the data collected in the fieldwork. Last, we validated our results in a sample of 40 locations distributed across the city through direct observation.
We mapped estimates of smokers' visibility across the entire city. The visibility was higher in the central districts and in streets with a high density of hospitality venues, public transportation stops, and retail shops. Peripheral districts, with larger green areas and residential or industrial land uses, showed lower visibility of smokers. Validation analyses found high agreement between the estimated and observed values of smokers’ visibility (R = 0.845, p=<0.001).
GIS-based methods enable the development of novel tools to study the distribution of smokers and their visibility in urban environments. We found differences in the visibility by population density and leisure, retail shops and business activities. The findings can support the development of policies to protect people from smoking.
•This study demonstrates that GIS can assist in estimating smokers' visibility at any point within a large city.•Our findings were validated and show an uneven distribution of smokers' visibility across the urban environment.•Hospitality venues and public transportation stops were the places with the highest visibility of smokers.•This study offers relevant insights for the future to reduce smokers' visibility and to denormalise tobacco use.
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Details
- Title
- Mapping the visibility of smokers across a large capital city
- Creators
- Roberto Valiente - Public Health and Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, SpainFrancisco Escobar - Department of Geology, Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, SpainJamie Pearce - Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United KingdomUsama Bilal - Public Health and Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, SpainManuel Franco - Public Health and Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, SpainXisca Sureda - Public Health and Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
- Publication Details
- Environmental research, v 180, 108888
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Urban Health Collaborative
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000502420600035
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85075468643
- Other Identifier
- 991014878324204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Environmental Sciences
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health