The findings can widen the perspective when striving for barrier-free building standards, to encompass a holistic approach that takes both objective and perceived aspects of housing into account. Home modification and relocation should not be prescribed, but need to be negotiated with older adults to take into account their personal preferences.

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Out-of-home mobility is a crucial prerequisite for autonomy and well-being. The European research project entitled Enhancing Mobility in Later Life: Personal Coping, Environmental Resources, and Technical Support (MOBILATE), funded within the European Commission's Fifth Framework Programme, focused on older adults' day-to-day mobility and the complex interplay between their personal resources and resources of their physical and social environments. A survey conducted in 2000 in urban and rural areas of five European countries (Finland, The Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and Italy) with various geographical, structural, and cultural conditions enabled us to compare patterns of older men's and women's actual mobility in different regional settings. The sample included =3,950 randomly selected persons aged 55 years or older, stratified according to gender and age. Standardised questionnaires and a diary were used to assess the persons' socio-structural, health-related, psychological and social resources as well as features of the community that may affect their options of realising outdoor oriented needs. The findings confirm that a person's physical, economic, social and technical resources as well as the structural resources prevailing in the area in which he or she lives in are decisive preconditions of out-of-home mobility. Older persons living singly, women, persons with impaired health and low economic resources, and the rural elderly tend to be particularly at risk of losing their abilities to move about. We conclude that further support and stimulation for enhancing out-of-home mobility in later life must focus as much on transport policy measures as on appropriate social policy measures.

Purpose: Our purpose in this study was to explore relationships between aspects of objective and perceived housing in five European samples of very old adults, as well as to investigate whether crossnational comparable patterns exist. Design and Methods: We utilized data from the first wave of the ENABLE-AGE Survey Study. The five national samples totalled 1,918 individuals aged 75 to 89 years. Objective assessments of the home environment covered the number of environmental barriers as well as the magnitude of accessibility problems (an aspect of person-environment fit). To assess perceptions of housing, we used instruments on usability, meaning of home, and housing satisfaction. We also assessed housing-related control. Results: Overall, the results revealed that the magnitude of accessibility problems, rather than the number of physical environmental barriers, was associated with perceptions of activity-oriented aspects of housing. That is, very old people living in more accessible housing perceived their homes as more useful and meaningful in relation to their routines and everyday activities, and they were less dependent on external control in relation to their housing. The patterns of such relationships were similar in the five national samples. Implications: Objective and perceived aspects of housing have to be considered in order to understand the dynamics of aging in place, and the results can be used in practice contexts that target housing for senior citizens.

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