Quality of Life and Barriers in the Urban Outdoor Environment in Old Age
(2010) In Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 58(11). p.2154-2159- Abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between barriers in the outdoor environment and perceived quality of life (QoL) in old age and to assess whether fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need contribute to this association. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Community and research center. PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred eighty-nine, community-dwelling people aged 75 to 81 took part in face-to-face home-interviews and examinations in the research center. MEASUREMENTS: QoL was assessed using the LEIPAD questionnaire. Environmental barriers were studied based on self-reports of lack of resting places or long distances (distances), noisy traffic or dangerous crossroads (traffic), and hilly terrain or poor street condition (terrain).... (More)
- OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between barriers in the outdoor environment and perceived quality of life (QoL) in old age and to assess whether fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need contribute to this association. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Community and research center. PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred eighty-nine, community-dwelling people aged 75 to 81 took part in face-to-face home-interviews and examinations in the research center. MEASUREMENTS: QoL was assessed using the LEIPAD questionnaire. Environmental barriers were studied based on self-reports of lack of resting places or long distances (distances), noisy traffic or dangerous crossroads (traffic), and hilly terrain or poor street condition (terrain). Fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need were self-reported, and maximal walking speed was measured over 10 m. A path analyses model using LISREL was used for the statistical analyses. RESULTS: QoL was worse among those who reported more barriers in their outdoor environment, experienced fear of moving outdoors or unmet physical activity need, and had slower walking speed and more chronic diseases. In the path model, in which 36% of the variation in QoL was explained, terrain, traffic and distances influenced QoL through fear of moving outdoors or unmet physical activity need, whereas distances had a direct association with QoL. CONCLUSION: An outdoor environment that encumbers outdoor mobility increases perceptions of fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need and is associated with poor QoL in older people. More research is needed to confirm the temporal order and causality of these observations. J Am Geriatr Soc 58:2154-2159, 2010. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1752413
- author
- Rantakokko, Merja ; Iwarsson, Susanne LU ; Kauppinen, Markku ; Leinonen, Raija ; Heikkinen, Eino and Rantanen, Taina
- organization
- publishing date
- 2010
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- quality of life, outdoor environment, outdoor mobility
- in
- Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
- volume
- 58
- issue
- 11
- pages
- 2154 - 2159
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000283950100015
- scopus:78449297681
- pmid:21054297
- ISSN
- 0002-8614
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03143.x
- project
- Life-Space Mobility in Older People (LISPE)
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Division of Occupational Therapy (Closed 2012) (013025000)
- id
- f03cf0b6-1ec3-45ae-9adf-46d3baef1988 (old id 1752413)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:15:22
- date last changed
- 2022-05-13 07:03:58
@article{f03cf0b6-1ec3-45ae-9adf-46d3baef1988,
abstract = {{OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between barriers in the outdoor environment and perceived quality of life (QoL) in old age and to assess whether fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need contribute to this association. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Community and research center. PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred eighty-nine, community-dwelling people aged 75 to 81 took part in face-to-face home-interviews and examinations in the research center. MEASUREMENTS: QoL was assessed using the LEIPAD questionnaire. Environmental barriers were studied based on self-reports of lack of resting places or long distances (distances), noisy traffic or dangerous crossroads (traffic), and hilly terrain or poor street condition (terrain). Fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need were self-reported, and maximal walking speed was measured over 10 m. A path analyses model using LISREL was used for the statistical analyses. RESULTS: QoL was worse among those who reported more barriers in their outdoor environment, experienced fear of moving outdoors or unmet physical activity need, and had slower walking speed and more chronic diseases. In the path model, in which 36% of the variation in QoL was explained, terrain, traffic and distances influenced QoL through fear of moving outdoors or unmet physical activity need, whereas distances had a direct association with QoL. CONCLUSION: An outdoor environment that encumbers outdoor mobility increases perceptions of fear of moving outdoors and unmet physical activity need and is associated with poor QoL in older people. More research is needed to confirm the temporal order and causality of these observations. J Am Geriatr Soc 58:2154-2159, 2010.}},
author = {{Rantakokko, Merja and Iwarsson, Susanne and Kauppinen, Markku and Leinonen, Raija and Heikkinen, Eino and Rantanen, Taina}},
issn = {{0002-8614}},
keywords = {{quality of life; outdoor environment; outdoor mobility}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{11}},
pages = {{2154--2159}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Journal of the American Geriatrics Society}},
title = {{Quality of Life and Barriers in the Urban Outdoor Environment in Old Age}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03143.x}},
doi = {{10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03143.x}},
volume = {{58}},
year = {{2010}},
}