Numbers and narratives: Developing a mixed-methods approach to understand mobility in later life

Abstract

The aim of this methods-focused article is to explore the potential benefits of integrating GPS, diary and in-depth interview data to gain richer insights into the everyday mobility practices of older adults. Eighteen adults, aged 65-90 years, living in the Netherlands, participated in the study. Our findings illustrate how quantitative (GPS) and qualitative (interviews and diary-based) approaches together can generate different insights and layers of understanding from each individual method in order to enhance the overall study findings. Our findings demonstrate that our methodological approach generates new insights with respect to GPS-measured and self-reported mobility, time-geographies, and micro-geographies of older adults in the Netherlands. In conclusion, our mixed-methods approach contributes to a better understanding of the everyday mobility practices of older adults, and could be used in other demographic groups.

“Cycling was never so easy!” An analysis of e-bike commuters' motives, travel behaviour and experiences using GPS-tracking and interviews

“…The present study examines the habitual travel behaviour of e-bike users by combining perceived and actual travel behaviour characteristics. In general, the value of combining these data has widely been recognized in the social sciences (Driscoll et al 2007) and mobility and transport studies (Meijering & Weitkamp 2016;Grosvenor 1998;Clifton & Handy 2003). We formulated three research questions: (1) What were motives for purchasing and starting to use an e-bike?…”

Activity spaces in studies of the environment and physical activity: A review and synthesis of implications for causality

“…Only three studies quantitatively investigated the differences between weekday and weekend activity spaces (Kamruzzaman and Hine, 2012; Chen and Akar, 2016; Kang et al, 2017) with one finding that utilitarian walking was more likely to occur on weekdays than recreational walking (Kang et al, 2017). Two of the qualitative studies described how activity was patterned by day (Bell et al, 2015a; Meijering and Weitkamp, 2016) and found unique activities occurring at the weekends (Bell et al, 2015a) and differences in times and geographies of older adults' mobilities over different days depending on factors such as weather and availability of family (Meijering and Weitkamp, 2016).…”

“…Some studies addressed differences between potential access and actual usage by capturing broader spaces experienced over a day or week to identify a range of spaces that may be accessible to an individual, or by comparing features within an activity space with those accessible from a home address (Zenk et al, 2011; Chaix et al, 2016; Hirsch et al, 2016; Rundle et al, 2016). Ten studies used qualitative analysis to understand why particular environments were chosen for use (Vine et al, 2012; Bell et al, 2015b, 2015a; Milton et al, 2015; Loebach and Gilliland, 2016b; Meijering and Weitkamp, 2016; Franke et al, 2017; Plazier et al, 2017; Yoo and Kim, 2017; Hand et al, 2018).…”

Giving Voice to the Environment as the Silent Partner in Aging: Examining the Moderating Roles of Gender and Family Structure in Older Adult Wellbeing

“…Although gerontology has often organized its theories around activity and wellbeing, space or spatial behavior remain neglected in its early theoretical articulations. This neglect is more intensified in the context of developing countries (notable exceptions include [4][5][6]). For instance, the last few decades in social gerontology have been dominated by the Successful Aging paradigm that defines 'success' within the narrow parameters of low disease probability or disease-related disability, high levels of physical and cognitive functioning, and active engagement in life.…”