Twitter Track Study

Overview

Project status: Completed

The Twitter Track Study is funded by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and is being conducted by Dr Julie-Anne Carroll (School of Public Health, QUT) and Dr Orit Ben Harush (Creative Industries, QUT).

The study has been designed with the aim of integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), demographic, and qualitative data to find out more about how people engage with their local environments for the purposes of physical activity in the Brisbane area.

The study will collect data using location-based mobile phone applications (foursquare and twitter) and online reports from mothers of primary-school-aged children about where they travel, consume, and engage in recreational activity with their children during a usual week. These data will be tracked and recorded onto online geographic information systems (Google Earth) so that urban planners, councils, and health promotion professionals can gauge the ways in which different social groups interpret and utilise their local resources with implications for their health and well-being.

The findings will measure, map, and explain different tracks and pathways that young families follow on a weekly basis (including how far they travel, how they travel, where they travel to, and for what purposes), and the types of recreational activities in which they engage. Qualitative data about how and what people think of their neighbourhood locales, and whether or not they use local parks, pathways, or green spaces for physical activity will be collated and superimposed on to the online Geographic Information System (GIS) maps to create a visual display of data about how people perceive and interact within different Brisbane suburbs in ways that affect their health.

The data collected in this study will provide insight for urban planners about what types of resources are needed to improve levels of physical activity in young families, and for health promotion professionals who are seeking to generate more relevant and sensitive communication with families about ways to improve their well-being.

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Grantor
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Research leader
Research team
QUT External collaborators
Organisational unit
Lead unit Faculty of Health Other units
Start date
1st January 2011
End date
31st December 2011
Research area
Social Determinants of Health
Keywords
physical activity, local environment, socio-economic background, social media, geographic information systems

Contact

For more information contact Dr Julie-Anne Carroll.
 

Details

Study Location

The study will be conducted in the suburbs of Bardon (postal code 4065) and Inala (postal code 4077). Both have relatively high populations of families with children. Bardon has approximately 1169 and Inala 1274 families with children. These suburbs were specifically selected for having this demographic characteristic in common.

These two suburbs score 1118.0 and 751.4 on the Socioeconomic Index for Area (SEIFA) measure respectively.

Bardon scores 73/100 on the international Walkability Scale, 'very walkable', and Inala 63/100, 'somewhat walkable'. Please visit the Walk Score® web site for information about the walkability scale.

They are both defined as being situated in a Major Australian City and Highly Accessible within the two major index categories on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA).

  1. Major Cities (ARIA score 0 < = 0.20) - relatively unrestricted accessibility to a wide range of goods and services and opportunities for social interaction.
  2. Highly Accessible (ARIA score 0 to < 0.20) - relatively unrestricted accessibility to a wide range of goods and services and opportunities for social interaction

(Reference: Office of Economic and Statistical Research, 2010).

These areas were chosen as 'urban case studies' in which we could study the ways in which both demographic and area characteristics influence familial physical activity levels. Additionally, it allows us to assess whether some areas have inherent advantages or disadvantages when it comes to being conducive to physical activity.

Participants

Mothers of primary-school-aged children will be recruited as the participants for this study. Mothers were chosen for this study as they tend to be responsible for the daily and weekly travel logistics within families and households, and for supervising travel of children to their various destinations.

Recruitment

Mothers are sought in the Bardon and Inala areas for participation in this study. Potential participants will be addressed via school newsletter ads. They will be asked to contact the research team via email, phone or fill in online registration at the study web site. Single, married, and de facto mothers are required to participate in this study which will ask mothers to record and track their travel logistics to and from their homes for a single week (7 day) period. Mothers will receive support to communicate their travel pathways to the researchers, and will receive $70 reimbursement for their time at the end of the reporting period, if they choose to participate in the study.

Data Collection

Prior to the 7 days tracking study, participants will be asked to fill in an online registration form and an online background survey. During the 7 tracking days data will be collected via foursquare, twitter with the hashtag 'qutstudy' and via online updates. Participants will have the choice of foursquare check-ins or tweets each time they arrive at a new destination or location during the day, or else they may complete an online log form of destinations to which they travelled at the end of each week day. This data will be stored and analysed to generate tracking maps and pathways using Google Earth Geographic Information System (GIS). Mothers will be interviewed in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews when their week of tracking is complete, and this qualitative data will be superimposed onto the GIS travel paths that were documented during the week. Quantitative data on 'distances travelled from home' during one week, and the category of destination, eg a park, school, swimming pool, will also be recorded for analysis.

Duration of Study

Data collection will be conducted in weekly periods as negotiated with participants. This will be followed by a short semi-structured interview to discuss the data as it has been mapped for each participant. It is anticipated that data collection will be complete by August 2011.

Geographic Location of Study

The Twitter Track study will be conducted in the two Brisbane suburbs of Bardon and Inala. Brisbane is the capital of Queensland, in Australia.

About Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. The state is Australia's second largest by area, following Western Australia, and the country's third most populous after New South Wales and Victoria.

The state's population (which is over 4 million people and growing) is concentrated in South East Queensland, which includes Brisbane, Logan City, Redland City, Ipswich, Toowoomba, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Other major regional centres include Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Ingham and Mount Isa.

Queensland is often nicknamed the Sunshine State, since it enjoys warm weather and a sizeable portion of the state is in the tropics. Within Brisbane, Queensland, the study will focus in the areas of Bardon and Inala.

Bardon

Bardon is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located approximately 5 km west of the Brisbane CBD. Bardon is a leafy residential suburb, much of which nestles into the foothills of Mount Coot-tha.


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Inala

Located 18 kilometres to the south west of the Brisbane CBD, Inala is considered a gateway to the nearby Wacol and Heathwood industrial estates. Inala Avenue/Poinsettia Street is the main roadway east-west and Serviceston Avenue/Rosemary Street and Blunder Road are the main roads stretching north-south.


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Publications and output

Ben Harush, Orit Rivka, Carroll, Julie-Anne, & Marsh, Brendan (2012) Using mobile social media and GIS in health and place research Continuum, 26(5).