Mobility, Mood and Place: a user-centred approach to design of built environments to make mobility easy, enjoyable and meaningful for older people

最近的研究表明，保持活跃是健康老龄化的重要组成部分，运动可以防止老年人的智力下降。如果人们生活在一个适当的环境中，一个安全、无障碍和有良好服务的环境中，他们的移动的性就更大。迄今为止，许多指导都集中在克服环境中的障碍，如没有扶手的台阶或质量差的照明。消除这些障碍很重要，但仅凭这种方法并不能鼓励人们更加积极。我们需要了解鼓励人们走出去的积极品质，保持移动的，并给他们快乐到很老的年龄。越来越多的证据表明，情绪和情感会影响人们的积极意愿，而积极意愿又会受到不同环境的影响--一个地方的“情绪”与另一个地方的“情绪”。为了支持积极的情绪，并吸引人们进入其中，地方需要有吸引力。有些地方提供和平与宁静，其他人提供社交，兴奋或乐趣。环境需要根据人们当时的感受提供不同的机会。精心设计的场所不会自动让人们心情愉快，但我们认为，符合当下情感需求的场所有助于自我强化的良性循环。如果一个地方的气氛是正确的，那么人们会出去走走，感觉更好，更好地照顾他们的环境，更积极地思考他们的环境。积极的情绪拓宽了人们的意识，鼓励他们以新的方式思考和行动，并在精神和身体上更加好奇和探索。鼓励积极情绪的环境会影响人们执行日常任务的能力，例如准备饭菜，去商店或计划郊游。感觉有能力的人更有可能关注积极的方面，感觉良好，做出健康的选择，并且更移动的。我们将利用我们对人群健康状况的模式，原因和影响的研究（流行病学），结合涉及脑成像的神经科学技术。我们还将与包括中风幸存者和痴呆症患者在内的老年人平等合作，共同设计更好的环境。这种创新的方法组合将帮助我们提供关于支持积极情绪的场所设计的新想法，减少焦虑，并鼓励人们更加活跃和移动的，直到老年。精心设计和维护的环境应该使移动成为一个简单，愉快和有意义的选择。我们的研究围绕四个工作包进行，包括：（1）与老年人一起设计，（2）检查人们在不同环境中移动时的神经信号（EEG）记录数据，（3）研究20世纪20年代和30年代出生的一大群老年人的信息，我们的研究团队在环境、健康、福祉、社会政策和协作设计方面拥有专业知识，并在过去的研究理事会和其他重大赠款中有着出色的业绩记录。我们在为建筑环境提供设计指导、测量人们对其环境的反应的创新方法、与他们合作以了解他们的偏好以及分析结果的影响方面拥有丰富的经验。我们还在绘制环境的重要方面拥有丰富的经验。为了最大限度地发挥我们研究的影响力，我们将动员我们与国家和地方政府层面的政策制定者，专业机构以及支持老年人和老年友好环境设计的第三部门组织的持续合作关系。

Recent research shows that remaining active is a vital component in healthy ageing and that exercise provides protection against mental decline in old age. People are more mobile if they live in an appropriate environment, one that is safe, accessible and has good services. To date, much guidance has focused on overcoming barriers in the environment, such as steps without handrails or poor quality lighting. Removing such barriers is important but this approach alone will not encourage people to be more active. We need to understand the positive qualities that encourage people to go out, remain mobile, and give them pleasure into very old age. Our proposal builds on growing evidence that mood and emotion influence people's willingness to be active, which is in turn influenced by the experience of different environments - the 'mood' of one place versus another.Places need to be attractive, in order to support positive moods, and to draw people into them. Some places offer peace and quiet, others offer sociability, excitement or a sense of fun. The environment needs to offer different opportunities according to how people feel at the time. Well-designed places don't automatically put people in a good mood, but we think places that match the emotional needs of the moment contribute to a self-reinforcing virtuous cycle. If the mood of a place is right then people will get out and about, feel better, take better care of their environment, and think of their environment more positively.Positive emotions broaden people's awareness and encourage them to think and act in novel ways, and to be more curious and exploratory, both mentally and physically. Environments that encourage positive moods affect how competent people are at carrying out everyday tasks, such as preparing meals, going to the shops or planning an outing. People who feel competent are more likely to focus on the positive, to feel well, to make healthy choices, and to be more mobile.We will draw on our studies of the patterns, causes, and effects of health conditions among groups of people (epidemiology), combined with techniques in neuroscience involving brain imaging. We will also work in equal partnership with older people, including stroke survivors and people with dementia, to design together better environments. This innovative combination of approaches will help us to deliver new ideas about the design of places that support positive emotions, reduce anxiety, and encourage people to be more active and mobile, long into old age. Well-designed and maintained environments should make mobility an easy, enjoyable and meaningful choice.Our research is structured around four Work Packages involving: (1) designing together with older people, (2) examining data from recordings of neural signals (EEG) while people are moving through different environments, (3) studying information from a large group of older people born in the 1920s and 30s, to understand patterns of environment, activity and health over their life course, and (4) working with partners to evaluate and share our results and develop illustrated, user-friendly guidance on how to provide better environments in future.Our team of researchers has expertise in environment, health, wellbeing, social policy and collaborative design, with an excellent track record of past Research Council and other major grants. We have experience in providing design guidance for the built environment, innovative approaches to measuring people's responses to their environment, working with them to understand their preferences, and analysing the implications of results. We also have experience in mapping important aspects of the environment.To maximise the impact of our research, we will mobilise our ongoing partnerships with policy-makers at national and local government level, with professional bodies, and with third sector organisations supporting older people and age-friendly environmental design.