Graduate School of Design, 1812Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
The Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1812Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
HERD. 2021 Jul;14(3):229-246. doi: 10.1177/1937586720982566. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
This article explores how the building-scale built environment is associated with self-rated health, examining differences in this association among younger, middle-aged, and older age groups. Features examined included building type, building condition, and sidewalk presence in front of dwellings.
Understanding how the relationships between built environments and health vary across age groups helps to build a healthy environment for all. However, most studies have concentrated on the neighborhood or indoor environment, rather than whole buildings, and few have compared age groups.
This study analyzed survey data from 1,019 adults living in 40 neighborhoods in Chengdu, China, recruited through a clustered random sampling approach. It used a Bayesian logistic mixed-effects model with interaction terms between age-group indicators and other variables.
Significant differences exist in the relationships of self-rated health with some environmental and other indicators among age groups. For older people, living in multi-floor buildings, having a household smoker, and undertaking fewer hours of weekly exercise were associated with lower odds of reporting good, very good, or excellent health. These relationships were not identified among middle-aged and younger people. More education was associated with higher odds of reporting better health among older and middle-aged groups.
Older people experience more health-related challenges compared to middle-aged and younger people. However, among the examined built environment factors, building type was the only significant factor related to self-rated health among older people. To promote health among older people, this study recommends adding elevators in the multi-floor buildings.
本文探讨了建筑规模的建成环境与自评健康之间的关系，并研究了这种关联在年轻、中年和老年群体之间的差异。研究的特征包括建筑类型、建筑状况以及住宅前的人行道存在情况。
了解建成环境与健康之间的关系在不同年龄组之间的差异有助于为所有人营造一个健康的环境。然而，大多数研究都集中在邻里或室内环境上，而不是整座建筑上，而且很少有研究比较不同的年龄组。
本研究分析了来自中国成都市 40 个街区的 1019 名成年人的调查数据，这些数据是通过聚类随机抽样方法收集的。它使用了贝叶斯逻辑混合效应模型，并在年龄组指标和其他变量之间设置了交互项。
在自评健康与一些环境和其他指标之间的关系上，不同年龄组之间存在显著差异。对于老年人来说，居住在多层建筑中、家中有吸烟者以及每周锻炼时间较少与报告良好、非常好或优秀健康的几率较低有关。这些关系在中年和年轻人中没有被发现。受教育程度较高与中年和老年人报告健康状况较好的几率较高有关。
与中年和年轻人相比，老年人面临更多与健康相关的挑战。然而，在所研究的建成环境因素中，建筑类型是与老年人自评健康相关的唯一显著因素。为了促进老年人的健康，本研究建议在多层建筑中增设电梯。
