Social Infrastructure and Street Networks as Critical Infrastructure for Aging Friendly Community Design: Mediating the Effect of Physical Activity

Jiayi Jiang; Zhengwei Xia; Xiaodi Sun; Xuanxuan Wang; Shixian Luo

doi:10.3390/ijerph191911842

Social Infrastructure and Street Networks as Critical Infrastructure for Aging Friendly Community Design: Mediating the Effect of Physical Activity

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 20;19(19):11842. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191911842.

Authors

Jiayi Jiang¹, Zhengwei Xia¹, Xiaodi Sun¹, Xuanxuan Wang¹, Shixian Luo²

Affiliations

¹ School of Architecture, Soochow University, No. 199 Ren-ai Road, Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou 215123, China.
² Department of Environmental Sciences and Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University-Matsudo Campus, Chiba 271-8510, Japan.

Abstract

Establishing an age-friendly environment at the community level is essential for promoting healthy aging. This study focused on the relationship between older adults and the community environment through their levels of satisfaction within it. We measured their physical activity (PA) in the community environment and three variables of community-level satisfaction: community environment (SCE), community social infrastructure (SSI), and community street networks (SSN). We analyzed 108 older adult participants in Suzhou using mediation analysis and multiple linear regression to investigate the relationship between physical activity and the community environment. The results of the mediation effect model showed that SCE, SSI, and SSN all affected the physical functions of older adults via the total amount of physical activity (TPA); SSI and SSN affected older adults' physical functions by affecting the total duration of moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA) and vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA). In addition, SSI and SSN are related to the types of community facilities, street space quality, and accessibility. Our study provides valuable insights into optimizing aging-friendly neighborhoods through moderate-to-vigorous-intensity PAs at both the facility and street space levels.

Keywords: age-friendly environment; community social infrastructure; community street networks; healthy aging; older adults; physical activity.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Environment Design
Exercise
Humans
Residence Characteristics
Social Capital*
Social Environment
Walking

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20211315) and Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent (2022ZB599). The funding sources had no involvement in any stage of the research.