Using Walk-Along Interviews to Identify Environmental Factors Influencing Older Adults’ Out-of-Home Behaviors in a High-Rise, High-Density Neighborhood

Abstract

Older adults’ out-of-home behaviors (OOHBs) are critical for maintaining health and quality of life. Taking Singapore’s Yuhua East as a case, this study applied a qualitative approach to explore what neighborhood environmental factors influence older adults’ OOHBs. Twelve older adults were recruited for walk-along interviews through the use of purposeful convenience sampling. A content analysis was conducted using NVivo 11 via an inductive approach. Research results revealed 12 categories of environmental factors that affected older adults’ OOHBs: access to facilities (shops and services, public transit, and connectivity), pedestrian infrastructure (sidewalk quality, sheltered walkways, universal design, crossings, benches, and public toilets), aesthetics (natural elements, buildings, noise, and cleanliness), traffic safety (behavior of other road users and road width), safety from crime, wayfinding, familiarity (long-term residency and routine activities), weather, social contact, high-rise, high-density (lifts, population density, flat size, and privacy), affordability (shops and services, as well as transportation), and maintenance and upgrading. This analysis concluded that access to facilities and pedestrian infrastructure are important for older adults’ OOHBs. Considering Singapore’s weather, sheltered walkways, the proximity of facilities and connectivity should be given serious emphasis. In addition to physical factors, social contacts and the affordability of shops and services are also important.

How different are objective operationalizations of walkability for older adults compared to the general population? A systematic review

“…Similarly, the most used spatial units among studies on older adults were buffers which are equal to or smaller than 1000m, and administrative units (e.g., neighborhood boundaries/ units, zip/postal codes, etc,) presented a higher share among this group of literature. These results were expected considering that the range of activity among older adults mostly decreases to the immediate vicinity of their residences [191], and doubtless this sheds more importance on the characteristics of the built environment in the neighborhoods. However, this also limits the range of walkability studies by underestimating individual differences, since not all older adults' activity range or levels are the same.…”

Older Adults’ Perceptions toward Walking: A Qualitative Study Using a Social-Ecological Model

“…However, weather might particularly affect older adults’ walking in Hong Kong because Hong Kong has a humid subtropical climate with very hot (>31 °C) and humid summers. Participants’ experience of these environmental factors influences their feelings and walking behaviors due to “fall risk” and “health benefits and barriers” at the individual level [ 61 ].…”

A Study of Older Adults’ Perception of High-Density Housing Neighbourhoods in Singapore: Multi-Sensory Perspective

“…Only a handful of these studies included some yet limited aspects of older adults’ perception and sensory assessment as part of larger investigations. Cao and colleagues [ 114 ], for instance, included an aesthetics category (nature, buildings, noise and cleanliness) to understand the out-of-home behaviour of older Singaporeans. In their study, Gan, Fung and Cho [ 115 ] proposed a holistic assessment of ‘Older People’s Neighborhood Experience’, which captured some elements of environmental pleasantness and outdoor aesthetics, such as appreciation of greenery, unique neighbourood features and different ambience qualities.…”

“…According to Cao and colleagues [ 114 ], the presence of nature, as well as quiet well-maintained spaces, encourages older adults to go out. However, correlation analysis in this study did not find any such statistically significant associations.…”