Abstract
The majority of the older people are aging in place and the social support that older people receive as part of aging in place is important for their quality of life. This chapter focuses on three intertwine concepts: social support, active aging and age-friendly community. These concepts are illustrated through a case study of 30 older people aged 60 and older living in three distinct communities in Beijing. The case study highlights the importance of how public transport conditions affect instrumental and emotional support that the older people receive through its impacts on mutual visits with families and friends. Physical environments, such as the housing style of a community, installation of elevators, living space, public space and facilities of a community affect older people’s daily activities and the opportunities for social interactions with others. Community services and social activities within the community are important for improving the socio-cultural environment of a community for active aging. The sense of community is highly related to the socio-cultural environment of the community and affects older people’s active aging. Age-friendly communities provide more options for older people to participate. The significance of age-friendly communities for improving social support for older people to actively age is tied to where they live.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Almedom, A. (2005). Social capital and mental health: An interdisciplinary review of primary evidence. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 943–964.
Andrews, G. J., & Phillips, D. R. (2002). Changing local geographies of private residential care for older people 1983–1999: Lessons for social policy in England and Wales. Social Science & Medicine, 55, 63–78.
Bartlett, H. P., & Peel, N. (2005). Healthy ageing in the community. In G. J. Andrews & D. R. Phillips (Eds.), Ageing and place (pp. 98–109). New York, NY: Routledge.
Chen, S., & Chen, E. Y. (2007). China and aging in the new century: Challenges to research and practice. In I. G. Cook & J. L. Powell (Eds.), New Perspectives on China and Aging (pp. 73–92). New York, NY: Nova Science.
Cheng, Y., Xi, J., Rosenberg, M. W., & Gao, S. (2018). Intergenerational differences in social support for the community-living elderly in Beijing, China. Health Science Reports, e96, 1–10.
Clarke, P., & Nieuwenhuijsen, E. R. (2009). Environments for healthy ageing: A critical review. Maturitas, 64, 14–19.
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357.
De Jesus, M., Puleo, E., Shelton, R. C., & Emmons, K. M. (2010). Associations between perceived social environment and neighborhood safety: Health implications. Health & Place, 16, 1007–1013.
De Silva, M. J., McKenzle, K., Harpham, T., & Huttly, S. R. A. (2005). Social capital and mental illness: A systematic review. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59, 619–627.
Eriksson, M., & Emmelin, M. (2013). What constitutes a health-enabling neighborhood? A grounded theory situational analysis addressing the significance of social capital and gender. Social Science & Medicine, 97, 112–123.
Ferreira, F. R., Cesar, C. C., Camargos, V. P., Lima-Costa, M. F., & Proietti, A. (2009). Aging and urbanization: The neighborhood perception and functional performance of elderly persons in Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area-Brazil. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 87, 54–66. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/content/h76047513765glmh/fulltext.pdf.
Gidlow, C., Cochrance, T., Davey, R. C., Smith, G., & Fairburn, J. (2010). Relative importance of physical and social aspects of perceived neighbourhood environment for self-reported health. Preventive Medicine, 51, 157–163.
Government of Canada. (2019). Age-friendly communities. Retrieved August 6, 2019, from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/aging-seniors/friendly-communities.html
Hand, C., Law, M., Hanna, S., Elliott, S., & McColl, M. A. (2012). Neighbourhood influence on participation in activities among older adults with chronic health conditions. Health & Place, 18, 869–876.
Jones, A., Bentham, G., Foster, C., Hilsdon, M., & Panter, J. (2007). Obesogenic environments evidence review. Foresight rackling obesities: Future choices project. Office of Science and Innovation.
Kalache, A., & Kickbusch, I. (1997). A global strategy for healthy ageing. World Health, 4(7–8), 4–5.
Kearns, R. A., & Moon, G. (2002). From medical to health geography: Novelty, place and theory after a decade of change. Progress in Human Geography, 26(5), 605–625.
Kuh, D., Karunananthan, S., Bergman, H., & Cooper, R. (2014). A life-course approach to healthy ageing: Maintaining physical capability. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 73(2), 237–248.
Langford, C., Bowsher, J., Maloney, J., & Lillis, P. (1997). Social support: A conceptual analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 25(1), 95–100.
Lin, C., Li, L., Ji, G., & Jie, W. (2015). Emotional social support and access to care among elderly living with HIV in rural China. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 30(10), 1041–1047.
Lin, Y., & Huang, C. (2016). Aging in Taiwan: Building a society for active aging and aging in place. The Gerontologist, 56(2), 176–183.
Loo, B., Lam, W., Mahendran, R., & Katagiri, K. (2017). How is the neighborhood environment related to the health of seniors living in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo? Some insights for promoting aging in place. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 107(4), 812–828.
Macintyre, S., Ellaway, A., & Cummins, S. (2002). Place effects on health: How can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them? Social Science and Medicine, 55, 125–139.
Mithen, J., Aitken, Z., Ziersch, A., & Kavanagh, A. M. (2015). Inequalities in social capital and health between people with and without disabilities. Social Science & Medicine, 126, 26–35.
National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China. (2012). Tabulation on the 2010 population census of the People’s Republic of China. Beijing: China Statistics Press. (In Chinese).
National Centre for Environmental Health, US. (2019). Healthy aging and the built environment. Retrieved August 6, 2019, from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/healthtopics/healthyaging.htm
Phillips, D. R., Siu, O., Yeh, A. G. O., & Cheng, K. H. C. (2005). The impacts of dwelling conditions on older persons’ psychological well-being in Hong Kong: The mediating role of residential satisfaction. Social Science & Medicine, 60, 2785–2797.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 37(4), 433–440.
Tanaka, K., & Johnson, N. E. (2010). Social integration and healthy aging in Japan: How gender and rurality matter. Journal of Cross-cultural Gerontology, 25(2), 199–216.
United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2016). World population prospects: The 2015 revision. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/
Walker, R. B., & Hiller, J. E. (2007). Place and health: A qualitative study to explore how older women living along perceive the social and physical dimensions of their neighbourhoods. Social Science & Medicine, 65, 1154–1165.
WHO. (2001). ICF: International classification of functioning, disability and health. (Short version). Geneva.
WHO. (2002). Active aging: A policy framework. A contribution of the World Health Organization to the Second United Nations World Assembly on Ageing, Madrid, Spain. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8.pdf
WHO. (2007). Global age-friendly cities: A guide. Retrieved June 6, 2019, from http://www.who.int/ageing/publications/Global_age_friendly_cities_Guide_English.pdf
WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia. (1999). Healthy cities, framework for action. New Delhi, (SEA/EH/529).
Yan, B., Gao, X., & Lyon, M. (2014). Modeling satisfaction amongst the elderly in different Chinese urban neighborhoods. Social Science & Medicine, 118, 127–134.
Yung, E., Conejos, S., & Chan, E. (2016). Social needs of the elderly and active aging in public open spaces in urban renewal. Cities, 52, 114–122.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cheng, Y., Xi, J., Rosenberg, M. (2021). Age-Friendly Environments and Active Aging for Community-based Older People Living in Beijing, China. In: Rojo-Pérez, F., Fernández-Mayoralas, G. (eds) Handbook of Active Ageing and Quality of Life. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58031-5_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58031-5_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-58030-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-58031-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)