Objectively-Measured Neighbourhood Attributes as Correlates and Moderators of Quality of Life in Older Adults with Different Living Arrangements: The ALECS Cross-Sectional Study

Casper J. P. Zhang, Anthony Barnett, Janice M. Johnston, Poh-chin Lai, Ruby S. Y. Lee, Cindy H. P. Sit and Ester Cerin
Additional contact information
Casper J. P. Zhang: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Anthony Barnett: Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
Janice M. Johnston: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Poh-chin Lai: Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Ruby S. Y. Lee: Elderly Health Service, Department of Health, The Government of Hong Kong Special Administration Region, Hong Kong, China
Cindy H. P. Sit: Department of Sports Science and Physical Education, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Ester Cerin: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: With an ageing world population, preservation of older adults’ health and quality of life (QoL) is paramount. Due to lower levels of physical functionality, older adults are particularly susceptible to local environment influences, especially those living alone and lacking family support. Using generalised additive mixed models, we examined associations and confounder-adjusted associations between objectively-measured neighbourhood attributes and QoL domains in 909 Hong Kong Chinese elderly community dwellers. Most examined neighbourhood attributes were not associated with QoL in the whole sample. Neighbourhood residential and entertainment density was curvilinearly and/or linearly related to specific QoL domains. Number of parks was negatively associated with social QoL and having well-treed parks with higher levels of social QoL. Older adults living alone in neighbourhoods with poor access to destinations and few activities in parks showed lower environmental and/or social QoL than their counterparts. Neighbourhood built environment characteristics do not seem to impact Hong Kong older adults’ physical and psychological QoL. Medium-to-high density, well-ordered neighbourhoods with optimal mixes of well-treed public open spaces and services meeting their daily needs may significantly contribute to social and environmental QoL in this population and appear particularly important to those living alone.

Keywords: geographic information systems; environmental audits; living arrangements; mega-city; walkability; Hong Kong; social support; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/876/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/876/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:5:p:876-:d:212627

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().