Destinations matter: The association between where older adults live and their travel behavior

Abstract

The positive effect of physical activity in the prevention and treatment of many chronic diseases and age-related disabilities, such as mobility-disability, are widely accepted. Mobility is broadly defined as the ability of individuals to move themselves within community environments. These two concepts -physical activity and mobility -are closely linked and together contribute to older adults living healthy, independent lives. Neighborhood destinations may encourage mobility, as older adults typically leave their homes to travel to specific destinations. Thus, neighborhoods with a high prevalence of destinations may provide older adults an attractive opportunity to walk, instead of drive, and thereby obtain incidental physical activity. We know surprisingly little about the specific types of destinations older adults deem relevant and even less about destinations that support the mobility of older adults with low income. Accessible neighborhood destinations may be especially important to older adults with low income as they are more likely to walk as a primary travel mode. Conversely, this population may also be at increased risk of functional impairments that negatively affect their ability to walk. As a means to fill this information gap we aimed to better understand the mobility habits of older adults with low income. Thus, our specific objectives were to: (1) describe the types of destinations older adults with low income most commonly travel to in one week; and (2) determine the association between the prevalence of neighborhood destinations and the number of transportation walking trips these individuals make (average per day). We conducted a cross-sectional study of community-dwelling older adults with low income residing within Metro Vancouver, Canada. We assessed participant travel behavior (frequency, purpose, mode, destination) using seven-day travel diaries and measured the prevalence of neighborhood destinations using the Street Smart Walk Score. We also assessed participants' sociodemographic characteristics and mobility (physical function, car access, CIHR Author ManuscriptCIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscript confidence walking). We used a negative binomial model to determine the association between Street Smart Walk Score and number of transportation walking trips (average per day). Our sample was comprised of 150 participants (median age 74 years; 51 men) from who we acquired at least one day of travel diary data (range = 1-7 days). Participants made three trips per day (2, 5; median P 25 , P 75 ) and travelled to six different destination types per week (5, 9; median P 25 , P 75 ).Destinations most relevant to older adults were grocery stores, malls, and restaurants/cafés. Each 10-point increase in Street Smart Walk Score was associated with a 20% increase in the number of transportation walking trips (average per day, incidence rate ratio = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.29). Our findings provide preliminary evidence regarding destinations that may be most relevant to older adults. ...

Neighborhood walkability, physical activity, and walking for transportation: A cross-sectional study of older adults living on low income

“…Previously we described flow of participants into the study [15]. Briefly, we randomly sampled 2000 households from our source population of 5806 households.…”

“…We provide a detailed description of Walk the Talk study methods, including recruitment, outcomes and data collection, elsewhere [15]. Briefly, we identified older adults in receipt of a rental subsidy (Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters, SAFER) through a provincial crown organization (BC Housing).…”

The Neighbourhood Physical Environment and Active Travel in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Sample sizes ranged from 44 to 48,879 [25,47], with eight (19.1%) articles reporting data on less than 300 participants (considered to be a small sample size in this research field) [47,48,[50][51][52][53][54][55]. Less than 30% of articles provided sufficient evidence for the sample representativeness (Table 2).…”

“…Sampling bias was identified as a significant threat to validity in over 70% of the reviewed articles, with many studies reporting very low [22,32,34,50,53,54,63,65,66] or no information on response rates [47, 48, 50-52, 55, 64, 70, 89, 93, 95, 97]. Optimally, studies should not only report response rates but also provide an assessment of the representativeness of the sample and describe the implications of an identified or potential pattern of selection bias.…”

Socio-demographic and built environment determinants of car use among older adults in Iran

“…Generally, the elderly tend to avoid long distances or complex trips; therefore, an appropriate residential location, within reach of necessary services, may be more critical in old age than at any other time in life (Giuliano et al, 2003;Truong and Somenahalli, 2015). Urban environments with higher densities, diverse land-uses, and pedestrian-friendly streets are better poised to meet the needs of older people -especially as the importance of recreational-, social-, and shopping-related travel increases whereas the role of work-related trips declines (Chudyk et al, 2015;Cui et al, 2017;Fobker and Grotz, 2006;van den Berg et al, 2011;Van Holle et al, 2014;Winters et al, 2015).…”