2022 International Conference on Aging in the Americas

Abstract

Objective: Life-space assessment (LSA) is an important tool used to assess mobility in older adults. High concentration of poverty is negatively associated with life-space mobility, but little is known about the role of ethnic enclaves as a potential moderator of this relationship. This study examines the role of ethnic enclaves in life-space mobility measured using the LSA score. Method: The data come from the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (HEPESE) survey, Wave 7, 2010-2011 (n=1,078), linked to census tract characteristics. Life-space mobility is measured using the LSA score and ethnic enclaves are determined using the tract percentage of Mexican American. We also examine socio-demographic characteristics and self-reported physician-diagnosed medical conditions. We use multiple regression analysis on the LSA score, controlling for tract poverty, tract percentage Mexican American, sociodemographic and health characteristics. Results: The profile of those with mean age of participants was 85.9 years (SD, 4.0), sixty-five percent were female, and the mean score of LSA was 37.21 (SD, 23.3). Poverty was negatively associated with LSA and this relationship maintained statistical significance when controlling for tract percentage Mexican American, sociodemographic and health characteristics. However, tract percentage Mexican American reduced the level of association between poverty and LSA. Conclusion: Preliminary results show that higher poverty levels are associated with lower LSA scores, however, when adding the tract percentage of Hispanic population to the model, we observed that the relationship between LSA and percentage of poor is moderated by the presence of ethnic enclaves. Future research should examine environmental and financial influences on LSM that may improve resilience with reference to physical decline and social isolation