211368 Neighborhood safety and active aging

Wednesday, November 11, 2009: 11:10 AM

William Satariano, PhD , School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Susan L. Ivey, MD, MHSA , Health Research for Action, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Melissa Kealey, MPH , School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Elaine Kurtovich, MPH , Health Research for Action, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Constance Bayles, PhD , School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Rebecca H. Hunter, MEd , Center for Aging and Health, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Thomas Prohaska, PhD , Community Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
  
Objectives:

• To describe the significance of neighborhood safety for active aging.

• To identify individual and environmental correlates of perceptions of neighborhood safety in a well-characterized older population.

• To consider the implications of this research for the design of healthy communities for active aging.

Older people who perceive their neighborhoods as unsafe are less likely than others to walk regularly in their neighborhoods. Perceptions of neighborhood safety are important for the promotion of active aging, but there is relatively little information about why some older people perceive their neighborhoods as safe, while others do not. This is a report from a collaborative study of people ages 65 and over (n= 884) in four geographic locations in the United States: Alameda County, CA; Cook County, IL; Allegheny County, PA; and Wake and Durham counties, NC. First, we will determine to what extent older residents' perceptions of neighborhood safety are associated with their perceptions of other characteristics of their neighborhoods, e.g., level of household density, and how those perceptual associations vary by geographic location, age, gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Second, we will examine the extent to which reports of neighborhood safety are associated with characteristics of the older residents (e.g., demographic and socioeconomic factors, residential history, health, functioning, depression, self-efficacy), compared to characteristics of their neighborhoods (geographic location, GIS-based measures of land-use patterns). Discussion will focus on the implications of this research for the design of healthy communities for active aging.

Learning Objectives:
Describe the significance of neighborhood safety for active aging

Keywords: Aging, Environment

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Faculty, researcher in neighborhood and physical activity in older populations, Principal Investigator for HAN project, basis of proposed presentation
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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