Friendly Residential Environments and Subjective Well-Being in Older People with and without Help Needs

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that friendly environments are associated with well-being and higher quality of life in older people. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between friendly environments and subjective well-being by segmenting the population according to the need for help in performing activities of daily living (ADLs) in a representative sample of people over 55 years of age in the Basque Country (Spain) (n = 2760). To determine the predictive power of friendliness on subjective well-being, two separate linear regression models were obtained according to the need for help in ADLs. The results obtained show a greater explanatory power of the model in the case of people who required help. However, in the case of people who do not need help, subjective health had a greater weight in the predictions. This paper’s findings support the greater importance of the characteristics of the physical and social environment, as people’s functional status worsens, with friendliness being an explanatory factor for people’s well-being as they age and their dependency increases.

Age-Inclusive Healthcare Sustainability: Romania’s Regulatory and Initiatives Landscape in the European Union Context

“…The research conducted on age-friendly environments in the EU is limited to the investigation of needs and expectations. Molina-Martínez [49] used the WHO-5 [50] (July and September 2020) to evaluate the well-being of people older than 55 years living in Basque Country, Spain. Out of 2760 respondents, 27.1% acknowledge that they need help with basic activities, and identified a low sense of neighborhood (mean of 26.71) but a medium-to-high well-being (mean = 68.5) [49].…”

“…Molina-Martínez [49] used the WHO-5 [50] (July and September 2020) to evaluate the well-being of people older than 55 years living in Basque Country, Spain. Out of 2760 respondents, 27.1% acknowledge that they need help with basic activities, and identified a low sense of neighborhood (mean of 26.71) but a medium-to-high well-being (mean = 68.5) [49]. Monachesi [51] reported in 2023 the results of an interview and auto-administrated questionnaire (Wong et al [38]) conducted in the city of Macerata, the Marche region, Italy, where the oldest citizen was 112 years of age.…”

Age-Friendly environment: A systematic literature review

“…As a systematic literature review, this study found the age-friendly environment concept is still in emerging studies. The basic foundation of the concept which come from WHO Europe office [11] is going to implement in other studies about environment and city [1], health, well-being, and social impact [10,15], policy [3,16], and community [9]. The recent studies about age-friendly environment concept also proposed inclusive model in vulnerable areas [17], social participation [18] and sustainable development goals [19].…”