Exploring facilitators and barriers of older adults’ outdoor mobility: a walk-along study in Singapore

Močnik, Špela, Moogoor, Adithi and Yuen, Belinda (2022) Exploring facilitators and barriers of older adults’ outdoor mobility: a walk-along study in Singapore. Journal of Transport & Health, 26, [101386]. (doi:10.1016/j.jth.2022.101386).

Abstract

Background: outdoor mobility is critical to the quality of life and health of older adults. The neighbourhood environment is one of the factors that influences mobility, but it is often investigated reductively as a direct correlate to movement.

Methods: this study undertakes an exploratory approach to community-dwelling older adults’ perceived environmental facilitators and barriers to their outdoor mobility in three Singapore neighbourhoods using walk-along interviews. Ninety participants were recruited through a mix of purposive and convenience sampling.

Results: thematic analysis revealed key built environment features that related to older adults' outdoor mobility. The facilitators were greenery and green spaces, even, obstruction-free and non-slip footpaths, sheltered walkways, and neighbourhood centre and amenities. The barriers included uneven and obstructed footpaths, lack of shelter or shade, poor legibility (lighting and wayfinding), and overhead bridges. More importantly, the analysis of facilitators and barriers revealed the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between the built environment and older adults’ mobility experiences: pleasure and comfort, psychosocial factors and motivation, materiality, temporality, and adaptive problem-solving behaviour.

Conclusions: compared to international studies, thermal comfort and temporality had a more pronounced role in influencing mobility of older adults in high-rise, high-density tropical environment. Our findings add to the growing research on investigating health and place relationship to understand why, where, when and how older adults move through local life-space areas.

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Contributors

Author: Špela Močnik

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