Our Best Selves
A Cloud-based Knowledge Base on Lifestyles for Ageing and Wellness
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Liangyi Cui
This paper introduces a cloud-based multilingual knowledge base on lifestyles for ageing and wellness. It contains selected resources in the long history of humankind, either from the East or the West with three main levels, including health literacy, quotations and famous sayings, and successful stories. What is considered a reputable source and what is an amateur opinion from a "so-called" expert is basically differentiated by taking advantage of big data mining and artificial intelligence. A working tool called Multilingual Wizard is designed, of which the real advantage lies in the agility with which explorers can retrieve and browse the knowledge base swiftly and smartly through the classification scheme, thus enabling them to study and discuss whatever topic is in it. A test of a relatively small population of local volunteers over sixty-five shows that the individual lifestyle contains mental mood, exercises/sports, daily diet, life orientation, and other ingredients. All healthy lifestyles for ageing and wellness largely resemble one another while each unhealthy lifestyle is unhealthy in its own way. It is fun and rewarding to explore the wealth of the human heritage in light of modern medical sciences. Let’s focus on the familiar, be open to advancement, and think how to live a fuller and fitter life.
Urban Living Environment and Mental Health of Older Persons: A Photovoice Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yuliya Mysyuk
The role of environment in health and wellbeing of older persons has been on the research and policy agendas worldwide. Considerable work within environmental gerontology has focused on the physical environment, although more attention has been paid to social environment recently. There is evidence that different elements of social environment such as social capital, social cohesion, safety, social contacts, or social support can influence older persons’ life, health (physical and mental) and wellbeing. However we do not exactly know how older persons themselves perceive and experience their environment, what is important for them and what role social characteristics of the environment play. In this study I discuss these issues by referring to empirical data obtained by using photovoice method and interviews. Participants were recruited from a database of Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam (LASA). Photovoice was used as a qualitative research technique, the participants recorded and reflected on their environment through photos. In-depth interviews were conducted with older persons on meaning of living environment and concepts of social cohesion, trust, safety, social participation, social support, and social networks. This data forms the background for a discussion of the social environment and its possible impact on mental health and wellbeing of older persons. I delve into such questions as: How do older persons define their living environment and what are the most important elements of social environment for them? How do older people experience their social environment? What aspects of the social environment influence their mental health and wellbeing?
Travel Behavior and Struggles Related to Older Adult’s Accessibility: Case of Beirut Pedestrian Safety
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mehran Madani
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate urban physical settings and physical infrastructure quality of different urban forms in Beirut Metropolitan Area to understand the safety issues and older adults’ ease of access to their outdoor environment. The SAFE Assessment Tool (Safety, Attractiveness, Friendliness, and Efficiency) was applied to assess key qualitative and quantitative objective measures related to older adults’ accessibility and connectivity to their needs and services in their immediate neighborhood, specifically at the street level as an integral element of the city. Direct observation was used as a data collection approach to record key outdoor characteristics of urban settings in 616 streets within thirty neighborhoods located in various urban forms. To distinguish various neighborhood characteristics of the study areas within the indicated urban contexts, we employed GIS spatial analysis technique. The GIS technology enabled us to cultivate the generated SAFE Assessment database to understand the spatial relationships between the neighborhood features through explanatory maps. The GIS maps also helped to determine the quality of spatial factors, their geographical locations, level of accessibility, and contextual relationships in the study areas, such as street/sidewalk features, type of building facades, landscape characteristics, and etc.
