Using Citizen Science to Explore Neighbourhood Influences on Ageing Well: Pilot Project

Abstract

Outdoor and indoor environments impact older people’s mobility, independence, quality of life, and ability to “age in place”. Considerable evidence suggests that not only the amount, but also the quality, of public green spaces in the living environment is important. The quality of public green spaces is mostly measured through expert assessments by planners, designers and developers. A disadvantage of this expert-determined approach is that it often does not consider the appraisals or perceptions of residents. Daily experience, often over long periods of time, means older residents have acquired insider knowledge of their neighbourhood, and thus, may be more qualified to assess these spaces, including measuring what makes a valued or quality public green space. The aim of this Australian pilot study on public green spaces for ageing well was to test an innovative citizen science approach to data collection using smart phones. “Senior” citizen scientists trialed the smart phone audit tool over a three-month period, recording and auditing public green spaces in their neighbourhoods. Data collected included geocoded location data, photographs, and qualitative comments along with survey data. While citizen science research is already well established in the natural sciences, it remains underutilised in the social sciences. This paper focuses on the use of citizen science with older participants highlighting the potential for this methodology in the fields of environmental gerontology, urban planning and landscape architecture.

How Older People Experience the Age-Friendliness of Their City: Development of the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire

“…Qualitative approaches have tried to measure and assess the age-friendliness of a city, for instance, through photoproduction [ 19 ] and photovoice [ 20 ] methods, or through citizen science programs of research [ 21 , 22 ]. Various researchers have tried to come up with a more quantitative approach to measure the age-friendliness, often taking the Checklist of Essential Features of Age-Friendly Cities [ 15 ] as a basis for their work.…”

Creating Age-Friendly Communities: Housing and Technology

“…This special issue of Healthcare on "Creating Age-Friendly Communities: Housing and Technology" is timely, comprising twelve papers [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] that traverse and intersect across the fields of gerontology, health and social care, social sciences and gerontechnology.…”

“…Based on these findings, Lee and colleagues propose a greater need for innovative design and technology relating to age-friendly housing, in particular for older adults who live alone, and state that attention is needed when designing age-friendly housing for immigrants who may have different needs, requirements and cultural preferences. Barrie and colleagues [26] explore and discuss external environments, relating to the impact of good design and accessibility to mobility, independence, quality of life, and the ability of older adults to age-in-place. This paper deployed a citizen science approach to data collection, using an audit tool on smartphones to assess neighbourhood public green spaces.…”

“…Living arrangements and environments in the broadest sense are explored in this volume of work as to how they impact on ageing. Supporting nursing home residents in meaningful activities [25], the impact of living alone [22], the use of aids and adaptations to support well-being [19] and the importance of public green space [16,26] all contribute to a discussion as to how to create an age-friendly environment. Importantly, a number of included papers highlight the 'expert' role older people have in their daily experience of the environments in which they live [26] and research in this area needs to move away from technological innovations that are not rooted in this expertise.…”

“…Supporting nursing home residents in meaningful activities [25], the impact of living alone [22], the use of aids and adaptations to support well-being [19] and the importance of public green space [16,26] all contribute to a discussion as to how to create an age-friendly environment. Importantly, a number of included papers highlight the 'expert' role older people have in their daily experience of the environments in which they live [26] and research in this area needs to move away from technological innovations that are not rooted in this expertise. The implementation of citizen science methodologies follows that of co-design and co-research [34][35][36], a movement that may lead age-friendly cities to become age-inclusive cities.…”