Background

Age-friendly environments promote healthy and active aging by building and maintaining capacity across the life course and allowing people who have a loss of capacity to continue engaging in activities that they value. Existing research demonstrates that municipalities are conducting age-friendly assessments worldwide.

Purpose

The current study aims to create a rich description of older adults' experiences with outdoor spaces, buildings, and transportation as part of an age-friendly assessment.

Method

A qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis (QIMS) was conducted to increase the number of studies eligible for analysis by allowing the inclusion of several existing qualitative studies from several countries. The QIMS included a systematic sampling and data analysis (i.e., theme extraction, theme synthesis, and methodological reduction) procedures and establishment of evidence credibility.

Results

The themes that emerged regarding older adults' experiences with outdoor space and buildings included 1) accessibility and 2) appropriate infrastructure. Regarding transportation, the theme of accessibility included subthemes of 1) availability and 2) affordability. Further reduction indicated that age-friendliness could be conceptualized as an environmental justice (EJ) issue.

Conclusions

The three areas of EJ (i.e., distributional justice, procedural justice, and recognition) provide a helpful framework to guide the systematic documentation and evaluation of age-friendly community efforts. Moreover, interprofessional collaborations are needed to address transportation equity and inclusion better.

中文翻译：

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室外空间和建筑物，运输和环境正义：两个年龄友好领域的定性解释性元合成

背景

对年龄友善的环境通过在整个生命过程中建立和维持能力，并允许失去能力的人继续从事他们认为有价值的活动，从而促进健康和积极的衰老。现有研究表明，市政当局正在全球范围内进行适合年龄的评估。

目的

当前的研究旨在对老年人在户外空间，建筑物和交通方面的经历进行丰富的描述，作为对年龄的友善评估的一部分。

方法

进行了定性解释性元合成（QIMS），通过允许纳入来自多个国家的一些现有定性研究，以增加符合分析条件的研究数量。QIMS包括系统的采样和数据分析（即主题提取，主题合成和方法论简化）程序，并建立证据可信度。

结果

与老年人在室外空间和建筑物上的经历有关的主题包括1）可达性和2）适当的基础设施。关于交通，无障碍的主题包括1）可用性和2）负担能力这两个子主题。进一步减少表明，可以将年龄友好性概念化为环境正义（EJ）问题。

结论

EJ的三个领域（即分配正义，程序正义和认可）提供了一个有用的框架，可指导系统地记录和评估适合老年人的社区工作。此外，需要行业间的合作来更好地解决运输公平和包容性问题。