Creating a Healthy Environment for Elderly People in Urban Public Activity Space

Abstract

According to statistics, the global, population aging problem is severe and growing rapidly. The aging problem is most obvious in some European countries, and most of them are developed countries, such as Japan, Italy, Germany, France, etc. The current internal and external environments of parks in China are complex. The inefficient utilization of space in urban parks is a prominent problem. The design of public spaces that only considers the visual experience is incomplete. Based on the optimization of urban park space planning principle, this study examined a new measure of the acoustic environment in elderly public activity space and designed a new elderly healthy urban park environment. Methods: Using the main parks in Shenyang (Zhongshan Park, Nanhu Park, Youth Park, and Labor park) as the study sites, this study analyzed problems in the acoustic environmental data through on-site inspection, questionnaire survey, and physical data collection. By using general linear regression and multiple regression methods, this study analyzed the impacts of plant density, site elevation, structure enclosure, functional mixing degree on the acoustic environment, and elderly population activities. Based on the acoustic environment, we propose improvements and construction ideas, as well as technical methods, for urban elderly public activity space planning. The utility of the “elderly public activity space planning principle” was also considered. Results: Elderly activity space in urban parks was affected by three main factors—plant density, degree of structural enclosure, and function mixing degree. These factors should be optimized to construct healthy acoustic environments and attract different types of people. Discussion: Compared to past studies, the new influencing factors of the planning principle for elderly public activity space found in this study, would benefit the urban park environment for the elderly and support sustainable development of cities. Conclusions: This study proposes three optimizations to the elderly urban park space planning principle and builds four healthy models of elderly urban space activity.

Association of indoor noise level with depression in hotel workers: A multicenter study from 111 China's cities

“…In total, 15 173 (58.3%) workers scored 0 and 10 845 (41.7%) above 0 (Table 4). Workers were divided into five ratings: normal (1-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), moderately severe (15)(16)(17)(18)(19), and severe (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27), with a composition ratio of 26.41%, 13.36%, 1.20%, 0.378, 0.24%, respectively. Moderate, moderately severe, and severe totally accounted for 1.83%.…”

“…The noise level is associated with stress, 1 annoyance, 2 sleep disturbance, 3 cardiovascular disease, 4 and impaired cognitive performance, 5 particularly loud noise such as airports and their surroundings, 6,7 traffic road noise, 8,9 urban public activity space, 10 and recreational settings 11,12 . Meanwhile, the general population is exposed to multiple chronic or low‐frequency noise sources, such as air conditioner noise and ventilation noise, due to occupational and residential exposure.…”

“…39 Regarding the assessment of questionnaire scores, some studies divided the scores into two ratings, for example, 8 to 11 was considered a reasonable threshold for depression judgment. 22,30,34 In addition, some studies also categorized the score into five ratings of depression severity: none (0-4), mild (5)(6)(7)(8)(9), moderate (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), moderately severe (15)(16)(17)(18)(19), and severe (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). 40 After evaluation and pre-investigation, we selected the Chinese PHQ-9 scale to investigate.…”

An Inclusive Model for Assessing Age-Friendly Urban Environments in Vulnerable Areas

“…Wen et al (2018) identified some landscape features desired by old-aged people, such as natural, esthetic, comprehensible, and diverse, with accessible and well-maintained infrastructure and facilities [36]. Shan et al (2020) examined the acoustic environment in the elderly's public activity space to design a new elderly healthy urban park environment [37], which they associated with a healthy and active way of living [38,39]. Tao and Cheng (2019) analyzed the elderly's spatial accessibility to healthcare services in Beijing [40].…”

Research and design of standing assistive seats for elderly based on Biomechanics Theory

“…With the continuous advancement of the global economy, people's living standards and medical conditions have improved greatly, followed by an increasingly serious population aging problem. It is reported that by 2017, the world's elderly population is about 962 million, accounting for 13 % of the total population [1,2]. Compared with the youth, the physical functions of the elderly are inevitable to decline.…”