TY - JOUR
T1 - Constructing a composite adolescent health and wellness index for British Columbia, Canada using a spatial multi-criteria analysis approach
AU - Martin, Gina
AU - Keller, C. Peter
AU - Foster, Leslie T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the McCreary Centre Society for providing us access to the 2008 BC AHS. We would also like to acknowledge the participants in the Delphi study who contributed to this research. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their most helpful comments and suggestions. This research was funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - This article describes the methods used to produce a composite index of adolescent health and wellness for the province of British Columbia. The unit of analysis was health service deliveries areas (HSDAs) for which adolescent-centred indicators, that reflect both positive and negative measures of adolescent health, were readily available. Using a Delphi technique, a set of 24 indicators of adolescent health and wellness were identified. The indicators were then combined using spatial multi-criteria analysis (MCA), specifically, the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). The composite index allowed for geographical variation of adolescent health and wellness across the Province to be explored using mapping software and statistical analysis. The index revealed an urban/rural gradient in adolescent health and wellness. Additionally, a negative relationship was found between the composite index and the percent of aboriginal population and a positive relationship was found with the percent of recent immigrants. This paper concludes by discussing the challenges, strengths and weaknesses of this composite index.
AB - This article describes the methods used to produce a composite index of adolescent health and wellness for the province of British Columbia. The unit of analysis was health service deliveries areas (HSDAs) for which adolescent-centred indicators, that reflect both positive and negative measures of adolescent health, were readily available. Using a Delphi technique, a set of 24 indicators of adolescent health and wellness were identified. The indicators were then combined using spatial multi-criteria analysis (MCA), specifically, the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). The composite index allowed for geographical variation of adolescent health and wellness across the Province to be explored using mapping software and statistical analysis. The index revealed an urban/rural gradient in adolescent health and wellness. Additionally, a negative relationship was found between the composite index and the percent of aboriginal population and a positive relationship was found with the percent of recent immigrants. This paper concludes by discussing the challenges, strengths and weaknesses of this composite index.
KW - Adolescence
KW - Delphi
KW - Health index
KW - Spatial MCA
KW - TOPSIS
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84869412314&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12187-011-9129-z
DO - 10.1007/s12187-011-9129-z
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:84869412314
SN - 1874-897X
VL - 5
SP - 215
EP - 234
JO - Child Indicators Research
JF - Child Indicators Research
IS - 2
ER -