Environments play an important role in determining our physical and mental capacity throughout a person's life and into old age. Work with the global community to create better places to grow, live, work, play and age. This video report shows how the local community and the hospital promote health and prevent diseases by creating an environment suitable for older people in Saitama, Japan. By expanding preventive health services, organizing group activities, and stressing the importance of making decisions that consider their health, local residents are empowered to take control of their own health and well-being.
Through effective coordination of services, multidisciplinary care and strong community support, it demonstrates how supportive environments for older people can help foster a sense of community and promote positive lifestyle choices for people of all ages. This database provides a searchable list of aging-friendly practices implemented by members of the WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities, and beyond. In practical terms, environments favorable to older people are free of physical and social barriers and are supported by policies, systems, services, products and technologies that promote health and develop and maintain physical and mental capacity throughout life, and allow people, even when they lose their capacity, to continue doing the things they value. An official website of the United States government They use official websites.
gov A. The gov website belongs to an official government organization of the United States. Leading an active life, both physically and socially, is crucial for maintaining health and well-being in old age. As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), “active ageing” is the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and safety in order to improve quality of life as people age (.It was used for the first time as a policy concept to guide communities, cities and countries towards actions favorable to older people, emphasizing an active approach to life and the need for older people to continue participating in a variety of physical and social activities in different functional areas (.
However, this concept was not fully implemented taking into account the diverse perspectives of older people. To address this limitation, researchers have continued to develop approaches to measure and understand active aging, which reflect how an older person's real behavioral decisions are a consequence of balancing a person's ability to move, opportunities to participate, and one's own goals and preferences toward meaningful activities (3,. In recent years, technology has become increasingly important in our lives, while allowing us to lead an active and committed life in ways that are different from the previous ones. Emerging technologies also offer new tools and methods for researchers to evaluate both environments and aging-related behaviors, allowing for a better understanding of the complex interactions between the person and the environment. However, the digital divide may be more pressing for older age groups, who may not have digital knowledge or do not have the means to use technologies (1.We offer expert opinions on how the physical aspects of environments conducive to activity can optimize opportunities for health, participation and safety and, therefore, facilitate active aging, and how they are closely related to the social and technological spheres of the environments).
Both housing environments and neighborhoods are discussed, as are emerging trends, methods, and approaches in research and practice related to design for active aging. Housing is essential for active aging, as it serves not only as a refuge but also as a place of purpose and identity (1). As people age and develop functional limitations, the lack of adaptation between the person and the environment (3, 14, 1) is often reflected first in living environments, leading to the need to modify the home or move to a different home or to a long-term care facility. The types and options of housing available to older people vary by location, and there are often significant gaps between demand and supply of suitable housing options. A person's housing choice is affected by multiple factors, such as availability, housing policies, sociocultural norms, and personal factors (e.g., physical barriers in residential units (e.g., the spatial segregation of homes suitable for different stages of life) limits housing options for older adults (1), compromises their opportunities to continue participating in their communities, and marginalizes intergenerational contacts ().Recently, in the U.S.
UU. For older adults, especially those with declining physical and cognitive resources, opportunities to participate in physical and social activities may be restricted for reasons beyond the individual's control. The characteristics of the neighborhood environment affect the ability of older adults to move and stay physically or socially active. However, understanding the neighborhood as a unit has proven to be a major challenge.
Administrative units (e.g., experiences with the environment are highly individualized, since knowledge of environmental characteristics depends on exposure to the environment (where it is actually used), as well as on individual functions (e.g., active research on aging also lacks unified definitions and standards for evaluating the neighborhood environment) (2) The variability of definitions and perspectives suggests the need to study the relationships between the person and the environment using multiple data sources (9, 2). Evaluating individual capacity is a common practice in the health sciences and assessments of living space (environmental exposure) using a questionnaire or technologies (2) have gained popularity in recent decades. However, accounting for multiple personal and environmental resources at the same time is not a common practice yet, especially in the field of aging research. Recognizing the complexity of these relationships and the full range of factors involved also poses theoretical and methodological challenges that must be addressed.
Despite these challenges, several environmental factors have been consistently identified as correlates of active aging in older adults. For example, the characteristics of the physical environment, such as the connectivity of main streets, the diversity of services and sufficient infrastructure (for example), serve as a good starting point for characterizing the physical environment that favors active aging in the workplace, for designing environments that promote active aging and for continuing to develop future research. The sociocultural environment is fundamental to addressing the wider social problems related to population aging, which encompass the cost of health care, the burden of care, the reduction of the workforce and intergenerational conflicts. Increasing efforts have been made to respond to this demographic change from a broader political and community level, such as the WHO Age-Friendly Cities Framework (3) and several programs offered by Generations United and AARP in the U.S.
However, efforts are needed to better understand the physical and social environmental factors that contribute to encouraging active aging throughout life and intergenerational interactions. Technology is increasingly being implemented in the home and in care settings to facilitate interactions and support the independence and participation of older adults in meaningful activities (3). Remote communication tools or intelligent monitoring solutions that use sensor-based technologies (e.g.To avoid unequal access to these services and tools, it's crucial to develop simple and intuitive solutions. This requires participatory research in collaboration with people with limited digital skills and companies willing to invest their time and resources to improve accessibility by diverse end users, including older adults (3).
Technology also helps researchers and professionals to better understand the interactions between the person and the environment. For example, professionals and researchers from various fields use the Geographic Information System (GIS) to study georeferenced and objectively evaluated characteristics of the physical environment. In addition, understanding people's subjective perceptions, experiences, and preferences is also crucial. Geographic mapping of participants' responses can help capture perceptions or subjective experiences of the environment that vary from person to person (39, 40). These online questionnaires, including citizen science platforms, allow easy data collection and are increasingly being used to meet the requirements of participatory planning, in addition to traditional face-to-face meetings or in place of traditional face-to-face meetings.
However, if support is not provided to those with limited digital skills, these methods may not reach a large part of the older population. When providing technical support is feasible, these methods have been successfully used to map older adults' use of the environment and related preferences (4). Research opportunities and the potential to generate new knowledge about interactions between the person and the environment will come from unique combinations of people-based approaches (e.g. e.g., this implies the importance of multidisciplinary research methods and the collaboration of experts from different scientific fields, such as public health, urban planning, architecture, data science and geoinformatics.
In addition, place-based research can generate relevant information for planners and designers, thus highlighting the importance of involving these professional actors in research to facilitate the use of knowledge. It is also important to note that the collection, linking and sharing of data can pose ethical problems related to privacy and prejudice, which must be carefully considered both in research and in practice. Due to diminished functions and limited energy reserves, older adults are more vulnerable to barriers in their physical and social environment than younger people. The planning and design of activity-friendly communities for all ages must be based on a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics that underlie relationships between the person and the environment, taking into account interrelated physical, social and technological factors. This also suggests the need for interdisciplinary and multisectoral collaborations in research, intervention and policy initiatives (4).
Technology will play an increasingly important role in generating knowledge, in addition to facilitating opportunities to actively age and age in the workplace. However, it is important to ensure that technological solutions are easy to use and accessible so that they do not present additional challenges for older adults with limited knowledge or access to technology. The authors declare that the research was carried out without any commercial or financial relationship that could be interpreted as a possible conflict of interest. The responsible editor, MS, stated a shared affiliation with the authors CL and XZ at the time of the review.
An aging-friendly city or community is a place that adapts its services and physical structures to be more inclusive and responsive to the needs of its population in order to improve their quality of life as they age. To promote spaces that are truly suitable for older people, the federal government must exercise its leadership to encourage provinces and municipalities to go beyond minimum standards. Policies to create more favorable environments for older people, involving a growing number of cities and communities, local authorities and regional governments. AFE-ECHO is part of the Tutoring Program for Environments Suitable for the Elderly (MENTOR-AFE) and is an innovative opportunity for capacity building for representatives of member States interested in developing cities and communities respectful of older people at the national, regional or local level.
Age-friendly practices recognize that there is great diversity in the capacity and circumstances of older adults, anticipate and respond to the needs and preferences of older adults in an equitable manner, respect the decisions and choices of older people, and protect the most vulnerable. For cities and communities to be friendly to older people, it is necessary to take steps to eliminate barriers and to develop policies, systems, products and services that promote healthy aging. PHAC funded the development of the original WHO Guide to Cities Adapted to Older Persons and the Pan-Canadian Guide to the Milestones of Age-Friendly Communities, to help communities implement requirements related to older people in their local environments. Making communities more friendly to older people should be understood as a practical response to promote the contributions and well-being of older residents who keep communities thriving.
Mentors provide guidance and support to apprentices to develop the specific skills they need to advance their work in environments suitable for older people. There is evidence that the community tends to have greater support if the development of buildings and spaces adapted to older people is not only aimed at older people, but their value is recognized for people of all ages. More and more efforts are being made to respond to this demographic change, starting from a policy and a broader community level, such as the WHO Framework for Age-Friendly Cities (3) and several programs offered by Generations United and AARP in the United States. The mission of the Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities is to encourage and enable cities and communities around the world to become friendly to older people.
While this summary of evidence focuses on the area of AFC related to the development of buildings and spaces suitable for older people, other reports focus on other areas of AFC, such as respect and social inclusion, social participation, communication and information, civic participation and employment, transportation, housing, and community health and support services. Experts have used the term “suitable for older people” for the past 15 years to describe and evaluate successful approaches to improving quality outcomes for older adults in cities, the workplace, homes and provider environments. The WHO approach to developing physical environments suitable for older persons recognizes the importance of meeting the needs of people of all ages to promote integration and interaction between generations.
