Purpose: The aim of this work is to examine the relationship between aspects of objective and perceived housing and aspects of healthy aging, defined as independence in daily activities and subjective wellbeing. Furthermore, this research examined the comparability of relationships between housing and healthy aging in the five European countries. Design and Methods: Data were drawn from the ENABLE-AGE Project, from home interviews with a sample of 1,918 very old people aged 75. to 89 years living alone in their own homes in Swedish, German, British, Hungarian and Latvian urban areas. Results: Participants living in better accessible homes, who perceive their home as meaningful and useful, and who think that external influences are not responsible for their housing situation are more independent in daily activities and have a better sense of well-being. Moreover, these results apply to all five national samples. Implications: The findings can widen the perspective when striving for barrier-free building standards, to encompass a holistic approach that takes both objective and perceived aspects of housing into account. Home modification and relocation should not be prescribed, but need to be negotiated with older adults to take into account their personal preferences.

https://www.psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de/mediendaten/ae/apa/fo_relationships_2007.pdf

Relationships between housing and healthy aging in very old age

Developing environments responsive to the aspirations and needs of older people has become a major concern for social and public policy. This article aims to provide a critical perspective on what ...

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Ageing in urban environments: Developing ‘age-friendly’ cities

The Age of Migration

Over the past four decades the environmental context of aging has come to play an important role in gerontological theory, research, and practice. Environmental gerontology (EG)--focused on the description, explanation, and modification or optimization of the relation between elderly persons and their sociospatial surroundings--has emerged as a subfield in its own right. The aim of this article is to reflect on the historical, empirical, and theoretical development of recent EG, following Parmelee and Lawton's diagnosis from 1990 that there is a need to move the field beyond its current languishing state. From a historical perspective, EG has clearly played an important and successful role within the gerontology enterprise in terms of explicit consideration of the sociophysical environment in theory and research. A literature analysis of empirical studies supports the view that research has continued on a substantial quantitative level during the 1990s. Findings of these research studies address the whole diversity of classic EG research questions, but mostly in the sense of replication and extension. In terms of theoretical discussion, our analysis leads to the insight that EG may be described as a field high in conceptual aspiration ("world views"), but low with regard to making research and application-productive use of its theoretical achievements.

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Environmental Gerontology at the Beginning of the New Millennium: Reflections on Its Historical, Empirical, and Theoretical Development

This paper sets the scene and provides a conceptual framework for the articles in this special issue. They present the findings of research on European residents who have reached or are on the threshold of old age and whose current circum- stances have been strongly influenced by a migration across an international border. Such ' older migrants  are scattered throughout Europe and they have especially diverse characteristics. They include some of the most deprived and socially excluded, and some of the most affluent and accomplished, but all to a greater or lesser extent are disadvantaged through an interaction between social policies and their ' otherness  by living in a foreign country. Some claim attention through the severity of their unmet health and welfare needs and poor capacity to access advice and treatment, while the affluent groups are of great interest to social gerontology because of their enterprising, developmental and positive approaches to old age. They include among the most innovative of the latest generation of older people, who pursue new combinations of family responsibilities, leisure pursuits and income generation. The paper proposes that the concept ' human capital  summarises variations in preparedness for old age, that is, the resources by which people cope with demands for income, roles, treatment, care and support. A typology of the 'welfare position  of international migrants in contemporary Europe is presented.

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The diversity and welfare of older migrants in Europe

Angebotsspektrum attraktiver Zielgebiete. Daneben wird die Giiltigkeit der Konvergenzhypothese diskutiert, wonach derzeit in den USA beobachtete Migrationscharakteristika kunftig mit Zeitverzug in Europa auftreten werden. Nach dieser Hypothese wurden sich altere Europaer in Zukunft starker an Fern- und Ruhesitzwanderungen beteiligen. Der Beitrag belegt deutliche Unterschiede in der Standortverbundenheit alterer Deutscher und Amerikaner. Es zeigen sich aber auch Zusammenhange zwischen Migrationen iiber langere Distanzen und (a) dem Vorhandensein von landschaftlich attraktiven Zielgebieten bei Binnenwanderungen sowie (b) der Existenz signifikanter familiarer Netzwerke bei internationalen Wanderungen. Die Autoren kommen zu dem SchluB, daB die Entwicklung der Altenmigration und die beobachteten Unterschiede zwischen den einzel nen Landern sowohl von kulturspezifischen als auch von historischen und raumlichen Rahmenbedingungen beeinfluBt werden. Sie lassen sich somit nicht auf einen einzelnen Entwicklungspfad zuriickfiihren. Summary. The paper proposes explanations for the strong contrasts among highly developed nations in the migration patterns of older people. It focuses on the relative prevalence of long-distance moves and of migrations to high amenity areas. The argument of the paper draws on recently published analyses of elderly migration in eleven OECD-nations and from the findings of recent studies by the authors. It focuses on two sets of influences upon the relative prevalence of long distance 'amenity-seeking' migrations by older people: cultural and urban-rural differences in people's 'place identity', and the 'oppor tunity sets' of environmentally attractive destinations within and accessible to each nation. As a subsidiary theme, it examines a convergence hypothesis about the evolution of migration among older people, that features now found in North America represent a later stage along a path that Europe has not yet reached but will attain. Under this hypothesis, the much higher rate of long distance mobility and of amenity-seeking moves in North America will be adopted by Europeans. The paper demon strates substantial differences in 'attachment to place' among older people in Germany compared to the United States. Associations are also shown between the prevalence of internal long distance retirement moves and (a) the availability of environmentally attractive destinations within a country, and (b) the distribution in other countries of close family members. It is concluded that the factors influencing the development of elderly migration and the patterns observed in each country are pardy cultural, partly historical and partly environmental, and that there is unlikely to be a single developmental path for migration in later life.

Understanding contrasts in later life migration patterns: germany, britain and the united states1)

This paper reviews some of the principal differences and similarities in the micgration and spatial redistribution behavior of the older populations of the USA and of Germany. The German situation has changed quite dramatically in recent years, as the consolidation of the former German Democratic Republic into the Federal Republic of Germany has altered the size, age structure, and, of particular interest here, the potential paths of population redistribution. The paper is divided into three distinct parts. The paper first reviews actual and prospective redistribution of the older population, with regard to interregional shifts of population as well as to changes in concentration along an urban-rural continuum. Following these macroscopic elements, the paper then moves to a presentation of the results of two ex post facto surveys (one taken in the USA and the other in Germany) of recent older movers in order to compare the motivations expressed for the move and the present degree of satisfaction with it. The concluding section considers the implications of redistribution at both geographic levels and of mover satisfaction in light of political developments as they are presently unfolding in Europe.

Klaus Friedrich

Papers

The diversity and welfare of older migrants in Europe

Understanding contrasts in later life migration patterns: germany, britain and the united states1)

Residential relocation and regional redistribution of the elderly in the USA and Germany

Special Issue on Older Migrants in Europe