Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Stanford Center on Longevity, Stanford, CA, USA.
Nat Aging. 2021 Dec;1(12):1088-1095. doi: 10.1038/s43587-021-00140-5. Epub 2021 Dec 10.
In response to increasing life expectancies and urbanization, initiatives for age-friendly cities seek to facilitate active and healthy aging by strengthening supports and services for older people. While laudable, these efforts typically neglect early-life exposures that influence long-term well-being. With a focus on the urban physical environment, we argue that longevity-ready cities can accomplish more than initiatives focused solely on old age. We review features of cities that cumulatively influence healthy aging and longevity, discuss the need for proactive interventions in a changing climate, and highlight inequities in the ambient physical environment, especially those encountered at early ages, that powerfully contribute to disparities in later life stages. Compared with strategies aimed largely at accommodating older populations, longevity-ready cities would aim to reduce the sources of disadvantages across the life course and simultaneously improve the well-being of older people.
为了应对预期寿命的延长和城市化的发展，建设友好型老年城市的举措旨在通过加强对老年人的支持和服务来促进积极健康的老龄化。虽然这些努力值得称赞，但它们通常忽略了会影响长期幸福感的早期生活暴露因素。我们关注城市的物质环境，认为长寿城市能够实现的目标比仅仅关注老年人口的举措更多。我们回顾了影响健康老龄化和长寿的城市特征，讨论了在气候变化下需要积极干预的问题，并强调了环境物理环境中的不平等现象，特别是在早期遇到的不平等现象，这些现象极大地促成了晚年阶段的差异。与主要旨在为老年人口提供便利的策略相比，长寿城市的目标将是减少整个生命周期中劣势的来源，同时改善老年人的福祉。
