2 ifa

AGEING AND

PERCEPTION OF

ENVIRONMENTAL

QUALITY

Marcela Petrová Kafková

Office for Population Studies, FSS MU, Brno

[email protected]

Environmental quality by ageing

• Low mobility of older people

– 24% live in the same house/flat all their life, average age of

moving into their current home 33 years

• Long-term users of local environment

• Higher preference of older people for ageing in place

(Lanspery 2002)

• Increased use of home and immediate neighbourhood

with ageing (Sýkorová 2008)

• Poor environmental quality tends to decrease outdoor

mobility of older people and their independence

Theoretical background – quality of life

• Environment as a key constituent and dynamic context of quality of life by ageing (Walker 2010)

• Structural characteristics of buildings and neighbourhoods affect the residents´ QoL (Disch et al 2007)

• Relationship between residential satisfaction and psychological well-being is an artifact of their mutual relationship with personal resources. (Swirian, Swirian 1993)

• Some people indicate high well-being in spite of environmental stressors (Smith 2009)

Neighbourhood satisfaction

Neighbourhood satisfaction by age

• Higher age → lower

neighbourhood

satisfaction

• Poorer health → lower

neighbourhood

satisfaction

• No influence of gender

and education

Age group Mean

60-69 6,7 (±0,9)

70-79 6,2 (± 1,4)

80+ 5,6 (± 2,0)

IADL by age

(IADL - score range 0-7,

a lower score indicates a higher

level of dependence) :

Neighbourhood perception "the neighbourhood is mostly… " (range 1-5) (%)

11

3

16

14

5

6

9

1

7

2

3

28

13

27

24

15

22

21

7

18

8

7

47

59

32

36

51

41

37

51

31

43

34

10

19

18

20

21

22

21

30

29

31

33

4

6

7

7

8

9

13

11

17

16

23

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

interesting

poor

noisy

clean

young

safe

changing

deserted

grey

cheap

bad address good ad.

expensive

green

overcrowded

the same

dangerous

old

dirty

quiet

wealthy

boring

50%

A good neighbourhood (agreement )

"in the neighbourhood there are…" total Age

60-69/80+

Education

well-lit streets at night 78%

a few places to relax 68% elementary

61%

enough pedestrian crossings and traffic lights

to cross safely

66% 69/62% elementary

56%

enough green belts 58%

new houses being built and the old ones

under reconstruction

57% tertiary 66%

I have a beautiful view from my home. 46%

It is often possible to see police patrols. 45%

My home is in a quiet zone. 42%

enough pleasant benches 41%

Enough pedestrian crossings and traffic

lights to cross safely

• The assessment doesn´t seem to be affected by

poorer locality of people with elementary

education but by education itself

• No influence of subjective health and IADL

• Less agreement by people with more health

limitations (worse sight, worse hearing, pain of

locomotor system)

A good neighbourhood (agreement )

"in the neighbourhood there are…" total Age

60-69/80+

Education

well-lit streets at night 78%

a few places to relax 68% elementary

61%

enough pedestrian crossings and traffic lights

to cross safely

66% 69/62% elementary

56%

enough green belts 58%

new houses being built and the old ones

under reconstruction

57% tertiary 66%

I have a beautiful view from my home. 46%

It is often possible to see police patrols. 45%

My home is in a quiet zone. 42%

enough pleasant benches 41%

A poor neighbourhood "in the neighbourhood there is/are…"

total Age 60-

69/80+

Gender

M/W

Education

Elem/ter

very heavy traffic 63%

casinos and night bars 48% 50/40%

many unknown people and homeless ones

roving around

47% 56/40

a lot of houses painted with graffiti and

vandalised

46% 50/43

badly kept pavements in winter 42% 38/55% 38/45

a lot of of rubbish 34% 41/37

more and more tourists 32% 29/38

I don´t like newly built houses, they don´t fit

here

28%

a lot of very old houses and deserted houses

without occupants

19% 18/13% 24/10

A safe neighbourhood

• It is quite dangerous to go out in the evening

– 54% agree

– 60-69 years old 51 %, 70-79 years old 54 %., 80+ 64%

– Education: elementary 63%, vocational 53%, secondary 54%,

tertiary 46%

• It is quite dangerous to go out during the day

– 22% agree

– Education: elementary 31%, vocational 24%, secondary 20%,

tertiary 12%

Neighbourhood satisfaction

It is quite dangerous to

go out in the evening

It is quite dangerous

to go out during the

day

agree disagree agree disagree

neighbourhood

satisfaction 57% 80% 50% 72%

happiness (mean)

(1- very happy) 5,0 (±2,1) 4,4 (±1,8)

5,3

(±1,9) 4,5 (±2,2)

• Poor vs. good neighbourhood

– r =-0,34, p < 0,001

– More positive aspects = less negative aspects

• Good neighbourhood vs. Neighbourhood

satisfaction

– R = 0,47, p < 0,001

– better neighb. = higher satisfaction with neighb.

• Poor neighbourhood vs. Neighbourhood

satisfaction

– R = -0,39, p < 0,001

– Poorer neighb. = less satisfaction with neighb.

A good neighbourhood • Index score range 1-4 (1 = max good

neighbourhood)

• No influence of age, gender and education

• No influence of subjective health but slightly affected by IADL and sense limitations

– IADL r = -0,15, p <0,001 (more independent = better neighbourhood)

– Sense limitations r = 0,11 , p <0,001 (less limitations = better neighbourhood)

A poor neighbourhood • Index score range 1-4 (1 = max poor neighbourhood)

• No influence of age, gender and education

• Some influence of health

– Subjective heath r = -0,16, p <0,001 (poorer health = poorer neighbourhood)

IADL r = 0,17, p <0,001 (less independent = poorer neighbourhood)

– Sense limitations r = -0,20 , p <0,001 (more limitations = poorer neighbourhood)

neighbourhood and quality of life (r)

good poor

satisfaction

with n.

PGC Morale

Scale -0,16 0,13 -0,23

loneliness 0,13 -0,16 0,15

agency -0,2 0,2 -0,18

happiness 0,19 -0,23 0,28

All correlations sig. p < 0,001

Conclusions • Neighbourhood quality

– Older people judge their neighbourhood mostly positive

– Only some specific aspects of environmental quality

affected by socio-demographic characteristics

– Perceived as worse with increasing health limitations

• Influence of neighbourhood quality on quality of life

– Some indications that quality of life tends to increase with

better neighbourhood quality

Thank you for your

attention.