Use of parks is important for the healthy ageing of older adults as it is associated with substantial physical, mental and social health benefits. However, parks are generally underused by older adults, and we know little about which physical environmental factors influence their use of parks. This study uses interviews to qualitatively explore the physical environmental factors of parks that influence older adults’ use of parks. Purposeful convenience sampling was used to recruit 20 older adults (aged 60 years and over) in Belfast, UK. 15 participated in walking interviews with a Go Pro camera mounted on their chest to record both visual and audio data, and the remaining participants were interviewed at their home with audio recorded only. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using an inductive thematic approach. Eight themes emerged as being important: park accessibility, natural elements, park amenities, sports facilities, maintenance and aesthetics, walking and cycling facilities, safety and slope. Policy wise, it is important to keep parks well-maintained and aesthetically pleasing with a variety of natural or semi-natural elements, such as landscaping, wooded areas. In addition, the presence of certain park amenities (i.e. toilets and benches) and sports facilities (i.e. children playgrounds) were found to play a critical role in supporting and encouraging older adults’ use of parks. Finally, the importance of providing good accessibility to different types of parks (i.e. neighbourhood parks and forest parks) across cities and towns was also highlighted, and the design guidelines for them should be developed contextually. It is vital that physical environmental features of parks are designed to maximize the physical and social health benefits for older adults with varied needs and functional ability for the purpose of promoting health and wellbeing.

公园的使用对于老年人的健康老龄化很重要，因为它与身体、心理和社会健康方面的巨大利益相关。然而，公园通常没有被老年人充分利用，我们对哪些物理环境因素影响他们对公园的使用知之甚少。本研究通过访谈对影响老年人使用公园的公园物理环境因素进行了定性研究。在英国贝尔法斯特，我们使用有目的的便利抽样招募了 20 名老年人（60 岁及以上）。15 名参与者使用安装在胸前的 Go Pro 摄像头进行步行采访，以记录视觉和音频数据，其余参与者在家中接受仅录音的采访。所有访谈都逐字转录，并使用归纳主题方法进行分析。八个主题显得尤为重要：公园可达性、自然元素、公园设施、体育设施、维护和美学、步行和自行车设施、安全和斜坡。在政策方面，重要的是要保持公园得到良好维护和美观，并拥有各种自然或半自然元素，例如景观美化、林区。此外，发现某些公园设施（即厕所和长凳）和体育设施（即儿童游乐场）的存在在支持和鼓励老年人使用公园方面发挥了关键作用。最后，还强调了为城市和城镇的不同类型公园（即社区公园和森林公园）提供良好可达性的重要性，并且应根据具体情况制定它们的设计指南。