The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Apr 7;22(1):676. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13033-y.
Motorized transport access and out-of-home activities are two potential correlates of Life-space mobility (LSM), a common research topic in mobility studies of older adults. These correlates remain mostly unexplored in previous literature and relating them with LSM can reveal directions for improving the LSM of older adults.
The associations between motorized transport access, out-of-home activities, and LSM were examined using data from 1,333 older adults (mean age = 70.63) living in 15 cities and towns in Japan. LSM was assessed using composite life-space assessment (LSA) scores. Motorized transport access was measured using dummies showing whether a person had car access (divided into five levels) and used public transport (bus and railway), and out-of-home activities were measured using the number of various activities that were conducted during the most recent weekday and weekend day. Generalized linear models were used to assess the associations.
The sample was dominated by males (74.42%), with more than half of the sample had their own cars. On average, each respondent had four activities during two survey days, and shopping was the most common activity. The results showed that owning a car and using railway, as well as various activities were associated with increased composite LSA scores, whereas no cars or only shared cars in home were associated with decreased composite LSA scores. However, these associations differed between males and females.
In this study, different levels of motorized transport access and different types of out-of-home activities were found to associate differently with composite LSA scores. Based on these findings, we suggest that policymakers should provide more transport access, pay more attention to the LSM of older adults with high clinics/hospital activities, and trigger more shopping and daily leisure activities for older adults to improve the LSM of this population.
机动车通行和户外活动是生活空间移动性（LSM）的两个潜在相关因素，这是老年人流动性研究中的一个常见课题。在之前的文献中，这些相关因素大多没有得到探索，将它们与 LSM 联系起来可以揭示改善老年人 LSM 的方向。
利用来自日本 15 个城市和城镇的 1333 名老年人（平均年龄=70.63 岁）的数据，检查了机动车通行、户外活动与 LSM 之间的关联。使用综合生活空间评估（LSA）评分来评估 LSM。机动车通行使用是否有汽车通行（分为五个等级）和使用公共交通（公共汽车和铁路）的虚拟变量来衡量，户外活动使用最近工作日和周末日进行的各种活动的数量来衡量。使用广义线性模型评估关联。
该样本以男性（74.42%）为主，超过一半的样本拥有自己的汽车。平均而言，每位受访者在两天的调查中进行了四项活动，购物是最常见的活动。结果表明，拥有汽车和使用铁路以及各种活动与增加综合 LSA 评分相关，而家中没有汽车或只有共享汽车与降低综合 LSA 评分相关。然而，这些关联在男性和女性之间有所不同。
在这项研究中，不同水平的机动车通行和不同类型的户外活动与综合 LSA 评分有不同的关联。基于这些发现，我们建议政策制定者应提供更多的交通通行，更加关注高诊所/医院活动的老年人的 LSM，并为老年人开展更多购物和日常休闲活动，以改善这一人群的 LSM。
