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

描述(由申请人提供)：移动性，定义为个人在其周围有效活动的能力，是独立和生活质量的基础。行动不便(行动不便)在老年人中非常普遍， 对独立和社会孤立的负面后果。最近的残疾模型提请注意环境因素的作用，这些因素可以与个人的潜在损害或能力相互作用，以阻碍或增强个人在行动能力方面的独立能力。例如，生活在没有连续的无障碍人行道的街道上，可能会阻碍因关节炎而疼痛或腿部无力的人的行动能力。使用二次分析和最近启动的国家健康和老龄化趋势研究(NHATS)的数据，这项建议旨在加深我们对残疾过程动态性质的理解。由NIA资助的NHATS是一项具有全国代表性的研究，旨在支持对残疾趋势和晚年生活动态的调查。NHATS使用创新的残疾和功能测量方法，客观地(通过身体表现测量)和主观地(通过调查问题)获取，梳理出残疾过程中的各种要素。此外，面试者对每个受访者的居住位置的观察提供了关于周围建筑环境中的障碍和促进者的客观数据。根据这一具有全国代表性的大样本中的一套独特的措施，该提案试图了解建筑环境的特点如何可能增加老年人行动不便和参与限制的风险或缓冲。建筑环境和行动障碍之间的关系是复杂的，包含了个人和环境因素之间的相互作用。更好地理解这种关系中的动态，对于规划和发展“年龄友好型”环境至关重要，这种环境可以让老年人“就地”变老。

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'.