A Direct Assessment of “Obesogenic”Built Environments: Challenges and Recommendations

Table 3

Advantages and disadvantages of assessing built environment features using a paper questionnaire versus GPS device.

	Paper questionnaire	GPS
Advantages	Easy to administer, does not require advanced technical knowledge.	Small, light, portable, convenient, relatively inexpensive, waterproof, allows for quick recording; comes preloaded with dozens of icons; allows for automatic data transfer onto computer, easy geotagging of pictures to show their locations on a map, and easy integration with spatial analysis programs;
Disadvantages	Questionnaires create a heavy load to carry during assessments; manual data entry is time consuming; inconvenient to use when raining.	Requires greater technical knowledge and integration of several computer programs to get data into a form that can be analyzed; possible safety hazard to be carrying expensive equipment alone and in plain sight.; Relative disadvantages: acquiring GPS devices outside of major cities may be more difficult and costly; base map (if used) and position accuracy varies depending on location and quality of GPS device used;