Age-Friendly Environments and Self-Rated Health:

Abstract

While a number of organizations and government entities have encouraged the development of more "age-friendly" environments, to date there has been limited research linking these environment features to elder outcomes. Using a representative sample of older adults living in Detroit, this study examined the association between age-friendly environment factors and self-rated health. Results indicated that access to health care, social support, and community engagement were each associated with better self-rated health, while neighborhood problems were associated with poorer self-rated health. Moreover, individual-level income and education no longer predicted self-rated health once age-friendly environment factors were taken into account. These findings highlight the need for more research documenting the effects of age-friendly environments, particularly across diverse contexts and populations.

The Role of Age-Friendly Environments on Quality of Life among Thai Older Adults

“…Previous studies found that the following age-friendly environment factors may be associated with better quality of life, well-being, life satisfaction, or self-rated health among older adults: social environment such as social support from family, friends and neighbours [5,6,7,8], neighbourhood social cohesion [8,9,10,11,12,13], social trust [14,15], an aesthetic neighbourhood or pleasant physical environment [11,16,17,18], a walkable neighbourhood [19,20], neighbourhood service accessibility [5,21,22], perceived neighbourhood security and safety [23,24,25], and neighbourhood crime safety [26,27]. There is a lack of studies in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, investigating age-friendly environments and how these impact quality of life among older adults.…”

Heterogeneous Age-Friendly Environments among Age-Cohort Groups

“…Importantly, members of the most vulnerable subgroup in the Korean context-poor older adults living alone-are more likely to have higher life satisfaction when they have higher levels of support in physical and social environments. As the first studies to examine the features of an age-friendly environment, these findings together suggest that more research is needed to examine replicability and applicability of the concept across diverse contexts and populations [12].…”

“…Using these six environmental factors, Lehning and colleagues [12] studied the self-rated health of older adults as an indicator of well-being and found that environmental factors were significantly related to self-rated health above and beyond individual demographic and health characteristics. Specifically, access to health care, social support, and community engagement were associated with better self-rated health, while neighborhood problems were associated with poorer self-rated health.…”

The Effectiveness of Healthy Community Approaches on Positive Health Outcomes in Canada and the United States

“…There were relatively few studies identified with three studies related to Active Living Communities [40][41][42]; one each for Safe communities [43] and Smart growth [44] and two related to Age Friendly Cities [45,46]. While various study designs were employed, none were randomized controlled trials.…”

“…Despite this finding, there is a gap in knowledge about the holistic impact of Age-Friendly Initiatives on outcomes in the lives of older persons. The disparate results of the two studies suggest that further empirical evidence is needed that employs standardized definitions of age-friendly environments across diverse settings and health outcomes [45,46].…”