Validation of a Pictorial Racial Composition Measure

Participants in this study were recruited between July 2013 and April 2014. Patients in the waiting rooms of the primary care clinic at the Center for Outpatient Health (COH) were approached by trained data collectors and asked to complete a survey in English. Participants were asked to complete a self-administered written questionnaire and a verbally administered survey component. The latter component assessed health literacy and was administered by a trained data collector who recorded responses. All participants completed a verbal consent process and signed a written consent form before completing the survey. As part of the consent process, participants could opt-in to have information abstracted from their medical records and merged with survey data. The Human Research Protection Office at Washington University School of Medicine approved this study. <br><br>Data collection <br>Participants in this study were recruited between July 2013 and April 2014. Patients in the waiting rooms of the COH were approached by trained data collectors and asked to complete a survey in English. Surveys were administered on different days of the week and at different times of day; data collectors approached all patients in the waiting room during their shifts. Inclusion criteria were that patients be at least 18 years old, a patient at the COH, and speak English. Participants were asked to complete a self-administered written questionnaire and a verbally administered survey component. The latter component assessed health literacy and was administered by a trained data collector who recorded responses. All participants completed a verbal consent process and signed a written consent form before completing the survey. As part of the consent process, participants could opt-in to have information abstracted from their medical records and merged with survey data. The Human Research Protection Office at Washington University School of Medicine approved this study. <br><br>Approximately 26% (n=1,111) of those approached were ineligible to participate because they were not patients or had previously taken the survey. Among eligible participants, 44% (n=1380) agreed to participate in the study and were consented by trained data collectors. Of the 1380 consented patients, 1010 (73%) completed the written survey. Among those with complete written surveys, 602 (60%) completed the verbally administered component, and 781 (77%) opted in to have data pulled from their electronic medical record. The majority of patients are female (67%), between 35-64 years of age (59%), and live in St. Louis City (46%) or St. Louis County (31%).<br><br>We propose and validate (against the gold standard written measure) a novel racial segregation measure, the Pictorial Racial Composition Measure (PRCM), which is a 10-item questionnaire of pictures representing social environments across adolescence and adulthood: neighborhoods and blocks (adolescent and current), schools and classrooms (junior high and high school), workplace, and place of worship.<br><br>This data deposit contains the analytic sample for this analysis and does not contain the full sample that was collected. For more information about the full data (including how to request other data from the study), visit https://wp.nyu.edu/collegeofglobalpublichealth-goodman_mle_lab/survey-of-center-for-outpatient-healt...<br><br><br>