Understanding the Role of the Built Environment for Mobility in Older Adults

描述（由申请人提供）：流动性，定义为一个人在他或她的环境中有效移动的能力，是独立和生活质量的基础。行动困难（行动障碍）在老年人中非常普遍， 对独立和社会孤立的负面影响。最近的残疾模型提请人们注意环境因素的作用，这些因素可能与个人的基本缺陷或能力相互作用，阻碍或增强个人独立行动的能力。例如，生活在没有连续无障碍人行道的街道上，可能会阻碍因关节炎而生活疼痛或腿部无力的人的行动能力。使用二次分析的数据，从最近推出的国家健康和老龄化趋势研究（NHATS），这项建议的目的是进一步了解残疾过程的动态性质。NHATS由NIA资助，是一项具有全国代表性的研究，旨在支持对晚年残疾趋势和动态的调查。NHATS采用创新的残疾和功能测量方法，从客观（通过身体表现测量）和主观（通过调查问题）两个方面捕获，以梳理沿着残疾过程的各种因素。此外，访谈者对每个受访者居住地点的观察提供了有关周围建筑环境中障碍和促进因素的客观数据。该提案利用这套独特的、具有全国代表性的大型样本衡量标准，试图了解建筑环境的特征如何可能增加老年人行动不便和参与受限的风险，或如何缓冲这些风险。建筑环境与行动能力残疾之间的关系是复杂的，包括个人和环境因素之间的相互作用。更好地了解这种关系的动态对于规划和发展“对老年人友好”的环境至关重要，这种环境使老年人能够“就地养老”。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mobility, defined as an individual's ability to move about effectively in his or her surroundings, is fundamental to independence and quality of life. Difficulty with mobility (mobility disability) is highly prevalent in older adult populations, with negative consequences for independence and social isolation. Recent models of disability draw attention to the role of environmental factors that can interact with an individual's underlying impairments or capacities to impede or enhance a person's ability to be independent in mobility. For example, living on a street without continuous, barrier-free sidewalks may hinder mobility for a person living with pain or leg weakness due to arthritis. Using secondary analyses with data from the recently launched National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), this proposal aims to further our understanding of the dynamic nature of the disablement process. Funded by the NIA, NHATS is a nationally representative study designed to support the investigation of disability trends and dynamics in later life. NHATS uses innovative measures of disability and function, captured both objectively (through physical performance measures) and subjectively (through survey questions), to tease apart the various elements along the disablement process. In addition, interviewer observations of each respondent's residential location provide objective data on the barriers and facilitators in the surrounding built environment. Drawing on this unique set of measures in a large, nationally representative sample, this proposal seeks to understand how characteristics in the built environment may increase the risk of, or buffer against, mobility disability and participation restriction in older adults. The relationship between the built environment and mobility disability is complex, incorporating interactions between individual and environmental factors. A better understanding of the dynamics in this relationship is critical for the planning and development of 'age-friendly' environments, which allow older adults to 'age in place'.