Identifying interactions between determinants of intention for civic engagement against transportation noise exposure – a theory-driven classification tree analysis with cross-sectional data from the KORA study in Germany

Abstract

The European Environmental Noise Directive highlights public participation in the development and review of noise action plans. Considering unequal participation opportunities, determinants of public civic engagement are crucial. We conceptualised these determinants to arise from four components: (1) noise exposure, (2) environmental resources, (3) engagement-specific cognitions, and (4) general cognitions and emotions. We aimed to classify intention for civic engagement in a population-based sample from the German KORA study in the Augsburg region by using Conditional Inference Trees (CIT) with variables attributed to the four components (N = 3,743, 43–92 years). The “engagement-specific cognitions”-CIT showed the highest prevalence of civic engagement intention resulting from interactions between subjective norm (expecting positive feedback from significant others), self-efficacy (having confidence to engage), and knowledge of noise abatement planning (70.6% as compared to the sample average (11.2%)). To promote equitable decision-making, participation might benefit from focusing on residents’ cognitive-behavioural processes.

Keywords:

• transportation noise exposure
• Environmental Noise Directive
• inequities
• civic engagement
• conditional inference tree

Authors’ contribution

Conceptualization: NR & EM

Methodology: EM & NR

Investigation – questionnaire design: NR, EM, HK, GB, UK; questionnaire and environmental data collection, processing, geocoding of residential addresses: UK, KW, BR, NR; interpretation of results: NR, EM, HK

Formal analysis: EM (Conditional Inference Trees), NR (bivariate analyses)

Writing – Original Draft: NR (abstract; majority of introduction, variable description, results and discussion; finalization), EM (focus on analytical strategy and statistical procedure; contributions to all parts), HK (contributions to all parts), UK (description of the data base)

Writing – Review & Editing: NR, EM, HK, BR, AP, LS, KW, GB, UK

Supervision: NR, EM, HK

Acknowledgements

We thank all participants for their long-term commitment to the KORA study, the staff for data collection and research data management and the members of the KORA Study Group (https://www.helmholtz-munich.de/en/epi/cohort/kora) who are responsible for the design and conduct of the study.

We thank Birgit Linkohr for her coordinative efforts within the KORA study platform and Uta Geruschkat for her patient and careful data quality assurance and compilation of datasets. Moreover, we thank Ramona Brunswieck for supporting the visualization of Conditional Inference Trees (figures) shown in this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Data availability statement

The informed consent given by KORA study participants does not cover data posting in public databases. However, data are available upon request by means of a project agreement from KORA (https://helmholtz-muenchen.managed-otrs.com/external). Requests should be sent to [email protected] and are subject to approval by the KORA Board.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG RI 2781/1-1, project number 387821120) while being affiliated with the University of Bremen, Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research, Department of Social Epidemiology (current affiliation: City of Münster, Department of Urban Planning). The following variables were financed by the collaborative research project “INGER–Integrating gender into environmental health research” (https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/inger) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (funding number: 01GL1713): perceived financial situation, self-rated health, self-reported neighbourhood greenery, as well as self-reported public green/blue space availability and quality. Variable shared by both DFG and BMBF project: recreational use of garden/balcony/terrace. The KORA study was initiated and financed by the Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the State of Bavaria. Data collection in the KORA study is done in co-operation with the University Hospital of Augsburg. Furthermore, KORA research was supported within the Munich Center of Health Sciences (MC Health), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, as part of LMUinnovativ. The questionnaire and noise data from the Bavarian Environmental Agency presented in this study was financed within the research project “Exploring cognitive-motivational determinants of health (inequities) in the context of the European Environmental Noise Directive” by Natalie Riedel.