Introduction Interventions targeting built environmental factors may encourage older people to engage in favorable behaviors and decrease dementia risk, but epidemiologic evidence is limited. This study investigated the association between neighborhood food environment and dementia incidence. Methods A 3-year follow-up (2010–2013) was conducted among participants in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based cohort study of older adults aged ≥65 years. Dementia incidence for 49,511 participants was assessed through the public long-term care insurance system. Availability of food stores (defined as the number of food stores selling fruits and vegetables within 500 meters or 1 kilometer of residence) was assessed for each participant using objective (GIS-based) and subjective (participant-reported) measurements. Data were analyzed from 2017 to 2018. Results A total of 3,162 cases of dementia occurred during the follow-up. Compared with the highest quartile for objective availability of food stores, the hazard ratio adjusting for age and sex was 1.60 (95% CI=1.43, 1.78) for the second-lowest quartile. Compared with the highest subjective availability of food stores, the hazard ratio was 1.74 (95% CI=1.49, 2.04) for the lowest category. After successive adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, health status, and other geographic neighborhood factors (availability of restaurants, convenience stores, and community centers), the hazard ratio remained statistically significant. Conclusions Lower food store availability was associated with increased dementia incidence. Given that food shopping is a routine activity and a main motive for going out among older adults, increasing the availability of food stores may contribute to dementia prevention.

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Elder abuse is a serious public health issue worldwide, but large-scale epidemiologic studies remain sparse. Although social factors in human relations such as social support and social isolation have been proposed as the factors related to elder abuse, cognitive social capital has not been examined. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> This study aims to clarify the prevalence of and the factors associated with elder abuse among independent older adults in Japan. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> The study design is a retrospective observational study. The data were derived from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES). These self-report data were collected from 26,229 people aged 65 years or older living in 28 municipalities in 2013. The types of elder abuse and factors associated with them were examined using logistic regression analysis. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The prevalence of elder abuse among the sample was 12.3% (11.1% in males and 13.3 in females). In the entire sample, physical, psychological, and financial abuses were reported to be 1.26, 11.12, and 1.45%, respectively. Factors associated with increased odds of experiencing abuse were being a woman, living with family members, having poor self-rated health, and having mild or severe depression. By contrast, age ≥85 years, being widowed, or unmarried, and having a positive view of community trust were associated with a lower risk of experiencing abuse. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> While particular demographic factors and health are associated with a greater risk of elder abuse, our findings that trust within the community lessens the risk indicates the importance of social capital. This should be taken into consideration when developing population-based strategies to prevent elder abuse.

BackgroundPrevious research has linked lower availability of food stores selling fruits and vegetables to unhealthy diet. However, the longitudinal association between the availability of healthy food stores and mortality is unknown. This study examined the association between neighborhood availability of food stores and mortality by driving status among older adults.MethodsThis study drew upon a three-year follow up of participants in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based cohort study of Japanese adults aged 65 years or older. Mortality from 2010 to 2013 was analyzed for 49,511 respondents. Neighborhood availability of food stores was defined as the number of food stores selling fruits and vegetables within a 500-m or 1-km radius of a person’s residence. Both subjective (participant-reported) and objective (geographic information system-based) measurements were used to assess this variable. Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for mortality.ResultsA total of 2049 deaths occurred during the follow up. Lower subjective availability of food stores was significantly associated with increased mortality. Compared with participants reporting the highest availability, the age- and sex-adjusted HR for those reporting the lowest availability was 1.28 (95% CI: 1.04–1.58; p = 0.02). The association remained significant after adjustment for sociodemographic (education, income, cohabitation, marital status, and employment status) and environmental (driving status, use of public transportation, and study site) status (HR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.01–1.53, p = 0.04). This association was stronger among non-car users, among whom the HR for those reporting the lowest availability of food stores was 1.61 (95% CI: 1.08–2.41, p = 0.02). In contrast, no significant association was seen between objective availability and mortality.ConclusionsLower availability of healthy food stores measured subjectively, but not objectively, was associated with mortality, especially among non-car users. Considering the decline in mobility with age, living in a neighborhood with many options for procuring fruits and vegetables within walking distance may be important for healthy aging.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12966-018-0732-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Mobility management is a transportation policy aiming to change travel behavior from car use to sustainable transportation modes while increasing people’s physical activity. Providing pedometers and visualizing step counts, popular interventions in public health practice, may constitute a mobility management program. However, the ease of modal shifts and changeability of walking habits differ across neighborhood environments. Using questionnaire data from 2023 middle-aged and older participants from Yokohama, Japan, in May 2017, this study examined (1) the relationship between the physical and social environments of Yokohama Walking Point Program participants who volunteered to use free pedometers and their modal shifts from cars to walking and public transport, and (2) whether participants’ modal shifts were associated with increases in step counts. Multivariate categorical regression analyses identified the frequency of greetings and conversations with neighbors as well as health motivation as important explanatory variables in both analyses. Participants living in neighborhoods far from railway stations and in neighborhoods with a high bus stop density tended to shift to walking and public transport, a modal shift that was highly associated with increased step counts. These results suggest that mobility management should be promoted in collaboration with public health and city planning professionals.

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PurposeCommunity-level group participation is a structural aspect of social capital that may have a contextual influence on an individual’s health. Herein, we sought to investigate a contextual relationship between community-level prevalence of sports group participation and depressive symptoms in older individuals.MethodsWe used data from the 2010 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based, cross-sectional study of individuals 65 yr or older without long-term care needs in Japan. Overall, 74,681 participants in 516 communities were analyzed. Depressive symptoms were diagnosed as a 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale score of ≥5. Participation in a sports group 1 d·month−1 or more often was defined as “participation.” For this study, we applied two-level multilevel Poisson regression analysis stratified by sex, calculated prevalence ratios (PR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsOverall, 17,420 individuals (23.3%) had depressive symptoms, and 16,915 (22.6%) participated in a sports group. Higher prevalence of community-level sports group participation had a statistically significant relationship with a lower likelihood of depressive symptoms (male: PR, 0.89 (95% CI, 0.85–0.92); female: PR, 0.96 (95% CI, 0.92–0.99), estimated by 10% of participation proportion) after adjusting for individual-level sports group participation, age, diseases, family form, alcohol, smoking, education, equivalent income, and population density. We found statistically significant cross-level interaction terms in male participants only (PR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.77–0.95).ConclusionsWe found a contextual preventive relationship between community-level sports group participation and depressive symptoms in older individuals. Therefore, promoting sports groups in a community may be effective as a population-based strategy for the prevention of depression in older individuals. Furthermore, the benefit may favor male sports group participants.