Home and Neighborhood Environments and Older Adults' Well-Being: Health, Community Satisfaction, and Aging-in-Place

Background/Purpose: In numerous empirical studies, older adults report high attachment to their homes and neighborhoods with approximately 90% of those over age 65 reporting a desire to stay in their current residence or to “age-in-place” for as long as possible. Thus, the number of older adults remaining in their community has increased rapidly. As the number of older adults who wish to remain in their homes and neighborhoods increases, understanding environmental factors that promote older adults’ well-being and support their ability to stay in the community becomes critical. Therefore, this study aimed to identify environmental factors that affect older adults’ well-being. Research questions of this study are (1) what are the relationship between home and neighborhood environments and older adults’ well-being (i.e., health, community satisfaction, aging-in-place), and (2) if functional limitations moderate the relationship?

Methods: This study involved secondary data analyses using the 2015 AARP Age-Friendly Community (AFC) Survey, which was collected from 14 communities across the United States. Among the 5,999 survey respondents, a total of 4,066 respondents, who were older than 65 years, comprised the subsample for this study. The dependent variables of this study are health (0=Poor-4=Excellent), community satisfaction (0=Poor-4=Excellent), and likelihood of aging-in-place (0=Not at all likely-4=Extremely likely). The independent variables of this study are home and community environments which were measured using 66 items under eight domains: (1) Home & Community, (2) Home, Public Buildings, & Spaces, (3) Transportation, (4) Health & Wellness, (5) Social Participation, Inclusion, & Education Opportunities, (6) Volunteering & Civic Engagement, (7) Job Opportunities, and (8) Community Information. Respondents were asked about the important and the availability of the 66 community features. For the analyses, availability scale and needs-gap (perceived importance vs. availability) scale were created using the mean scores. To draw unbiased and more accurate results, five copies of datasets were created using multiple imputation, and hypotheses were tested using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to control the dependency among observations due to clustering.

Results: Results indicate that all independent variables – home and neighborhood environments – are positively associated with older adults’ health, community satisfaction, and likelihood of aging-in-place. Among the eight domains, Transportation had the strongest impact on older adults’ health, followed by Social Participation, Inclusion, & Education Opportunities. Home, Public Buildings, & Spaces and Transportation had a strong positive impact on community satisfaction. For aging-in-place, Transportation had the strongest impact followed by Home, Public Building & Spaces, Health & Wellness, and Home & Community. For older adults with functional limitations, home and neighborhood environments had greater impact on their health, community satisfaction, and aging-in-place.

Conclusions/Implications: This study found that supportive home and neighborhood environments enhance older adults’ well-being. As Transportation appears to have a strong impact on older adults’ health, community satisfaction, and likelihood of aging-in-place, more safe and affordable transportation options should be provided. The results suggest that older adults with disabilities are more affected by surrounding environments. Therefore, special attention should be given to the population to improve their well-being and increase/maintain ability to stay in the community.