Melchiorre Maria Gabriella, Socci Marco, Lamura Giovanni, Quattrini Sabrina
Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing, IRCCS INRCA - National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, Ancona, Italy.
BMC Geriatr. 2025 Jul 2;25(1):457. doi: 10.1186/s12877-025-06083-5.
When older people have limited physical ability, several difficulties could arise from a built environment that is not appropriate for their needs, especially when they live alone without cohabiting with their relatives. The study explores how frail older people with functional limitations are ageing in place alone and how they perceive and manage the built environment, i.e., housing (home and building) and neighbourhood, with regard to both urban and rural sites.
Data were collected for the main IN-AGE "Inclusive Ageing in Place" study, which was carried out in 2019 in Italy. For this paper, semi-structured interviews involving 40 participants aged 65 years and over in the Marche Region (Central Italy) were processed, and a mixed-methods analysis (quantitative/qualitative) was conducted. Simple quantitative/descriptive elaborations (univariate and bivariate analyses) were integrated with thematic content analysis.
The findings suggested, among others, the following issues: high costs for managing the home, poor relationships with neighbours in some cases, scarcity of proximity services especially in rural sites, and the presence of architectural/mobility barriers, even though the latter are little perceived when inside the home. Moreover, the majority of seniors were emotionally attached to their living place, although feelings of loneliness and isolation emerged, also following depopulation in rural areas.
Despite the small/not representative sample size, the results highlight how, a built environment that is perceived as inadequate, could hamper ageing in place and participating in communities for frail seniors. This could be managed with appropriate interventions to be implemented taking into account the diversity between rural and urban sites.
Not applicable.
当老年人身体能力有限时，不适合其需求的建筑环境可能会引发一些问题，尤其是当他们独自居住且没有亲属同住时。本研究探讨了功能受限的体弱老年人如何独自居家养老，以及他们如何看待和管理建筑环境，即住房（家和建筑）及邻里环境，涉及城市和农村地区。
数据收集自2019年在意大利开展的主要的“就地包容式老龄化”（IN-AGE）研究。本文对意大利中部马尔凯地区40名65岁及以上参与者进行的半结构化访谈进行了处理，并开展了混合方法分析（定量/定性）。简单的定量/描述性阐述（单变量和双变量分析）与主题内容分析相结合。
研究结果表明，存在以下问题：房屋管理成本高昂；在某些情况下与邻居关系不佳；尤其是农村地区的近距离服务匮乏；存在建筑/行动障碍，尽管在家中时人们很少察觉到这些障碍。此外，大多数老年人对自己的居住场所有着情感依恋，不过，即使在农村地区人口减少之后，孤独感和孤立感也有所显现。
尽管样本量小/缺乏代表性，但结果凸显了一个被认为不合适的建筑环境如何阻碍体弱老年人就地养老和融入社区。考虑到城乡地区的差异，可以通过实施适当的干预措施来解决这一问题。
不适用。
