Lu Shiyu, Guo Yingqi, Chui Cheryl, Liu Yuqi, Chan On Fung, Chan Samuel W, Lum Terry Y S
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Social Work; Department of Geography; Smart Society Lab, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
Innov Aging. 2022 Nov 17;6(7):igac070. doi: 10.1093/geroni/igac070. eCollection 2022.
Neighborhood environments are increasingly recognized as associated with mental well-being among older adults. However, their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated mediating effects of cognitive and structural social capital (SC) in relationships between neighborhood environments and mental well-being among older adults.
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1,277 community-dwellers aged 60 years and older in Hong Kong in 2021. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale assessed mental well-being. Perceived age-friendly environment was assessed. Objective neighborhood environment was measured by the number of neighborhood facilities (e.g., transportation, community centers, leisure facilities) within 200-m and 500-m buffer areas from respondents' residences. Structural equational modeling was used.
Perceived age-friendly environment regarding community and health support had a protective role on mental well-being. More community centers were directly associated with better affective-emotional well-being, while more passive leisure facilities directly lowered psychological-functioning well-being. Cognitive SC outweighed structural SC in mediating relationships of neighborhood environment on mental well-being.
Our findings advance the ecological model of aging by providing evidence for cognitive and structural SC as mediators to explain the relationship between neighborhood environment and mental well-being. Policy implications for optimizing mental well-being in aging societies are discussed.
邻里环境越来越被认为与老年人的心理健康相关。然而，其潜在机制仍不清楚。本研究调查了认知和结构社会资本（SC）在邻里环境与老年人心理健康关系中的中介作用。
2021年，我们对香港1277名60岁及以上的社区居民进行了横断面分析。采用沃里克 - 爱丁堡心理健康量表评估心理健康。评估了感知到的对老年人友好的环境。客观邻里环境通过受访者住所周围200米和500米缓冲区内邻里设施（如交通、社区中心、休闲设施）的数量来衡量。使用了结构方程模型。
对社区和健康支持方面的感知到的对老年人友好的环境对心理健康具有保护作用。更多的社区中心与更好的情感幸福感直接相关，而更多的被动休闲设施直接降低了心理功能幸福感。在邻里环境与心理健康的中介关系中，认知社会资本比结构社会资本更重要。
我们的研究结果通过提供证据表明认知和结构社会资本作为中介来解释邻里环境与心理健康之间的关系，推进了衰老的生态模型。讨论了在老龄化社会中优化心理健康的政策含义。
