Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, 114588Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, 142585Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2022 Apr;94(3):290-311. doi: 10.1177/00914150211037657. Epub 2021 Aug 19.
Neighborhood environment plays an important role in late-life health; yet, the social aspect of neighborhood environment and its impact on mobility limitations have rarely been examined. This nonexperimental, cross-sectional study examines the relationship between neighborhood social cohesion and mobility limitations and the potential mediators (i.e., depressive symptoms, mastery) of this relationship. A total of 8,317 Americans aged 65 years and older were selected from the Health and Retirement Study. Using ordinary least squares regressions, this study shows that neighborhood social cohesion was negatively associated with mobility limitations ( = -0.04, < .01). A Sobel test of mediation indicated that this relationship was significantly mediated by depressive symptoms ( = -9.10, < .001) and mastery ( = -8.86, < .001). Findings suggest that neighborhood cohesion can reduce mobility limitations through mitigating depressive symptoms and increasing mastery. Future research should disentangle the temporal ordering of the mediators.
邻里环境对晚年健康起着重要作用；然而，邻里环境的社会方面及其对行动受限的影响很少被研究。本非实验性、横断面研究检验了邻里社会凝聚力与行动受限之间的关系，以及该关系的潜在中介因素（即抑郁症状、掌控感）。本研究从健康与退休研究中选取了 8317 名 65 岁及以上的美国人。采用普通最小二乘法回归，本研究表明，邻里社会凝聚力与行动受限呈负相关（ = -0.04， < .01）。中介检验表明，这种关系通过抑郁症状（ = -9.10， < .001）和掌控感（ = -8.86， < .001）得到显著中介。研究结果表明，邻里凝聚力可以通过减轻抑郁症状和增强掌控感来减少行动受限。未来的研究应该厘清中介因素的时间顺序。
