How Can the Lived Environment Support Healthy Ageing? A Spatial Indicators Framework for the Assessment of Age-Friendly Communities

Planning plays a critical role in promoting healthy communities for children. We conducted a national survey of United States (US) cities and counties in 2019 and found only half of the 1312 responding communities report they give attention to the needs of children in their community plans. Those that do, provide more services and have more child-friendly zoning codes. We use a human ecological framework to build structural equation models of child-friendly zoning and services. We find communities with more engagement of families with children and youth and a common vision across generational, race, and ethnic lines report higher levels of child-friendly zoning and services. Collaboration between health providers and schools builds trust and leads to more services. However, child-friendly zoning is lower in communities with higher child poverty, and in suburbs and rural areas. Our results support a dynamic human ecological model where the processes of collaboration, inclusion, and engagement are key to creating healthy places for children. These processes may be especially important in addressing the unique challenges of suburban and rural communities.

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthy Places for Children: The Critical Role of Engagement, Common Vision, and Collaboration

Warner

Zhang

2020

“…Moreover, an alternative approach to measuring Blue Zones ® could consider using quantitative measures by building on the work of Davern and colleagues [ 79 ], whereby employing a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to measure spatial indicators associated with Blue Zones ® may afford various actors the opportunity to understand the greater importance and associations reflected in the lived environment(s) in an attempt to facilitate and enhance health and wellbeing. In addition to the work published by Davern et al [ 79 ], Jackisch et al [ 80 ] and the United Nations—New Urban Agenda, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [ 81 ] have also employed GIS techniques and approaches as a means of understanding the impact and importance of spatial indicators associated with age-friendly cities and communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Commentary on Blue Zones®: A Critical Review of Age-Friendly Environments in the 21st Century and Beyond

Marston

Niles-Yokum

Silva

2021

This paper explores the intersection of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) concepts of age-friendly communities and The Blue Zones® checklists and how the potential of integrating the two frameworks for the development of a contemporary framework can address the current gaps in the literature as well as consider the inclusion of technology and environmental press. The commentary presented here sets out initial thoughts and explorations that have the potential to impact societies on a global scale and provides recommendations for a roadmap to consider new ways to think about the impact of health and wellbeing of older adults and their families. Additionally, this paper highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses of the aforementioned checklists and frameworks by examining the literature including the WHO age-friendly framework, the smart age-friendly ecosystem (SAfE) framework and the Blue Zones® checklists. We argue that gaps exist in the current literature and take a critical approach as a way to be inclusive of technology and the environments in which older adults live. This commentary contributes to the fields of gerontology, gerontechnology, anthropology, and geography, because we are proposing a roadmap which sets out the need for future work which requires multi- and interdisciplinary research to be conducted for the respective checklists to evolve.

“…In addition, research in Australia has shown that Internet access is also becoming increasingly necessary for the elderly to access information about the government, health, banking, and community services [ 20 ]. Moreover, intelligent assistive technologies (IATs) have also been found to be of great help to the Canadian elderly in healthcare, daily life, travel, and communication and is expected to be widely used in the future [ 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Improve the Public Trust of the Intelligent Aging Community: An Empirical Study Based on the ACSI Model

Wang

2021

In order to enhance social trust in intelligent aging services, the formation mechanism of public trust in the intelligent aging community was studied. Based on the classic American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) model, this paper establishes the public trust formation model of the intelligent aging community by proposing relevant assumptions. Using 306 questionnaires from China's intelligent aging care model community as the original data, the model is empirically tested through structural equation modeling. The empirical results show that: firstly, the public satisfaction with the intelligent aging community directly determines the formation of public trust, and the key to improving public trust in the intelligent aging community is to improve customer satisfaction. Secondly, perceived quality, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, and perceived cost economical directly affect public satisfaction and indirectly affect the formation process of public trust in the intelligent aging community. Public satisfaction serves as a complete intermediary in this process.