Yoshimoto T, Kawata C
Social and Advanced Research Lab., Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Nihon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi. 1996 Dec;33(12):928-34. doi: 10.3143/geriatrics.33.928.
Social activities such as visiting friends or participating in community groups have been shown to correlate positively with active health promotion, more frequent physical exercise, and maintenance of activities of daily living in older people. Social inactivity may result from personal factors such as physical condition and from environmental factors such as limited means of transportation. To study the latter factors, we focused on perceived transportation difficulties and on the influence of those perceptions on the daily activities of elderly people. We sought to test the hypothesis that perceived transportation problems restrict health promotion or social activities and accelerate the decline in activities of daily living, and also to determine how transportation can be improved. A questionnaire was sent to 238 people (a fifth of the population) aged 60 years or older who were living in a small town in Kanagawa prefecture. Buses are the principal mode of public transportation from their residences to the nearest train station and the trip takes about 50 minutes. Responses were received from 190 persons (83.3%, excluding those who had died, moved, or were in the hospital). Of the respondents, 166 (74 men and 92 women) went out by themselves and their responses were subjected to logistic regression analysis. The results revealed the following points. (1) For both men and women, riding buses to the hospital was associated with a greater perception of problems with respect to convenience, physical exertion, or anxiety when crossing the road. (2) Among women, greater perceived inconvenience of transportation correlated with a lower frequency of going out for daily shopping; a higher frequency of visiting friends correlated with greater perception of physical exertion. (3) Among women, the main desire was to visit friends. Men indicated that they wanted to be more active in hobbies. The women indicated that the main reason they do not fulfill their desires was that transportation is inconvenient. These findings indicate that perceived transportation problems can prevent elderly people, especially women, from going out for health promotion and social activities. This indicates that to support social activities of elderly people, the means of transportation should be made more convenient and more physically accessible, and local circumstances should be taken into consideration.
诸如拜访朋友或参加社区团体等社交活动已被证明与老年人积极的健康促进、更频繁的体育锻炼以及日常生活活动的维持呈正相关。社交活动不活跃可能源于身体状况等个人因素，也可能源于交通方式有限等环境因素。为了研究后一种因素，我们重点关注了感知到的交通困难以及这些感知对老年人日常活动的影响。我们试图检验这样一个假设，即感知到的交通问题会限制健康促进或社交活动，并加速日常生活活动能力的下降，同时还要确定如何改善交通状况。我们向居住在神奈川县一个小镇上的238名60岁及以上的老年人（占当地人口的五分之一）发放了问卷。公交车是从他们住所到最近火车站的主要公共交通方式，这段路程大约需要50分钟。共收到190人的回复（回复率为83.3%，不包括那些已经去世、搬走或住院的人）。在这些受访者中，有166人（74名男性和92名女性）是独自外出，他们的回复被用于进行逻辑回归分析。结果揭示了以下几点。（1）对于男性和女性来说，乘坐公交车去医院都与在便利性、身体劳累程度或过马路时的焦虑感等方面更大的问题感知相关。（2）在女性中，更大的交通不便感与日常购物外出频率较低相关；更高的拜访朋友频率与更大的身体劳累感相关。（3）在女性中，主要愿望是拜访朋友。男性表示他们希望在业余爱好方面更加活跃。女性表示她们未能实现愿望的主要原因是交通不便。这些发现表明，感知到的交通问题会阻碍老年人，尤其是女性，外出进行健康促进和社交活动。这表明，为了支持老年人的社交活动，交通方式应该更加便利且在身体上更易于使用，同时应考虑当地情况。
