The home as enabler of more active lifestyles among older people

Abstract

Inactive lifestyles have negative health consequences, while time spent sedentary (sitting and lying) is related to morbidity and premature mortality. Older adults often form the most sedentary segment of the population. Much of this behaviour may be practised at home where this group can spend extended periods. Physical activity rates among older adults are particularly low. Even household physical activities can be beneficial for this group, while they can constitute much of an older person's total activity. Despite this context, the home's role in the active and sedentary behaviours of the older population appears critically understudied. Using interview and focus group data collected from 22 older adults (healthy volunteers, stroke survivors and people with dementia), this paper begins to address this issue. Aspects of the home that aid or impede a more active, less sedentary lifestyle are identified with three presenting particular capacity in this respect discussed: steps, space within the home, and the location and form of facilities, fixtures and fittings. The crucial role health status plays in structuring this capacity is identified. Simple design recommendations, devised to support older people to lead more active lives at home, are presented.

Keywords:

• active design
• active living
• age
• built environment
• design characteristics
• home
• housing
• older adults
• physical activity
• sedentary behaviour

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the older participants who took part in the project; the Scottish Stroke Research Network; and the wider Mobility, Mood and Place research team based at the University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt, University of York and King's College London.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by Research Councils UK under the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Cross-Council Programme [grant reference number EP/K037404/1]. The raw data associated with this publication contain personal/sensitive information (interviews and focus groups with individuals) and cannot be released. At the end of the three-year project to which this publication relates an anonymised version of these data may be considered for deposit in the University of Edinburgh's open-access data repository Edinburgh DataShare. Raw data will be securely stored after the project in the proposed non-public Data Vault service that the university will offer researchers.