Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
Research Group on Mobility, Transportation and Territory (GEMOTT), Department of Geography, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
Int J Health Geogr. 2023 Jan 28;22(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s12942-023-00325-8.
GPS technology and tracking study designs have gained popularity as a tool to go beyond the limitations of static exposure assessments based on the subject's residence. These dynamic exposure assessment methods offer high potential upside in terms of accuracy but also disadvantages in terms of cost, sample sizes, and types of data generated. Because of that, with our study we aim to understand in which cases researchers need to use GPS-based methods to guarantee the necessary accuracy in exposure assessment. With a sample of 113 seniors living in Barcelona (Spain) we compare their estimated daily exposures to air pollution (PM2.5, PM10, NO2), noise (dB), and greenness (NDVI) using static and dynamic exposure assessment techniques. Results indicate that significant differences between static and dynamic exposure assessments are only present in selected exposures, and would thus suggest that static assessments using the place of residence would provide accurate-enough values across a number of exposures in the case of seniors. Our models for Barcelona's seniors suggest that dynamic exposure would only be required in the case of exposure to smaller particulate matter (PM2.5) and exposure to noise levels. The study signals to the need to consider both the mobility patterns and the built environment context when deciding between static or dynamic measures of exposure assessment.
GPS 技术和追踪研究设计已成为一种超越基于研究对象居住地址的静态暴露评估局限性的工具而受到欢迎。这些动态暴露评估方法在准确性方面具有很高的潜在优势，但在成本、样本量和生成的数据类型方面也存在劣势。因此，在我们的研究中，我们旨在了解研究人员在哪些情况下需要使用基于 GPS 的方法来保证暴露评估所需的准确性。我们对 113 名居住在巴塞罗那（西班牙）的老年人进行了研究，使用静态和动态暴露评估技术比较了他们对空气污染（PM2.5、PM10、NO2）、噪音（dB）和绿化（NDVI）的估计日暴露量。结果表明，只有在特定暴露量中才存在静态和动态暴露评估之间的显著差异，这表明在老年人的情况下，使用居住地的静态评估可以为多种暴露量提供足够准确的值。我们对巴塞罗那老年人的模型表明，只有在暴露于较小的颗粒物（PM2.5）和暴露于噪声水平的情况下才需要进行动态暴露评估。该研究表明，在决定使用静态或动态暴露评估方法时，需要考虑到移动模式和建筑环境背景。
