Title: HEALTHY URBAN LIVING AND AGEING IN PLACE: PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE IN BRAZILIAN CITIES (HULAP)
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Brazil has one of the most rapidly ageing populations in the world and non-communicable diseases are emerging as the main national public health priority. These include increasing levels of obesity and other conditions associated with a lack of PA. There is emerging evidence on the impact of increased PA on health, particularly amongst older adults, although this is not as well developed as for other demographic groups, despite them being the least active and most sedentary. It is also becoming clear that, set within a wider ecological model, the form of the built urban environment can influence levels of PA, suggesting that interventions in this area could provide a useful role in supporting long-term strategies for public health. There are very few studies on PA amongst older adults in Brazil, although there is some evidence that suggests it is associated with improved quality of life and health, irrespective of age, education and socio-economic status. Therefore, an enhanced understanding of PA behaviour of older adults in Brazil, the role of urban design in facilitating this and improved policy effectiveness will benefit the economic development and well-being in Brazil, through healthier ageing in place, reduction in future health burdens and enhanced institutional capacity. The project integrates three themes highlighted in the call specification related to: Urban Design/Planning/Housing/Infrastructure; Health/Inequalities/Justice; and Leadership/Governance/Institutions. This project will develop policy tools, partnerships and evidence for increasing PA levels of older adults in Brazilian cities, by bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of Brazilian/UK researchers drawn from public health, geography, planning and management studies, as well as a range of key stakeholders that are central to promoting this policy agenda in Brazil, the UK and Europe. We take a comparative Brazil-UK approach that builds on research previously funded by the ESRC, CAPES, CNPq and others. We aim to capture the PA of a sample of older adults in Curitiba (Brazil) and Belfast (UK) and measure a range of attributes of the built environment which may influence this. We will develop and test new methodologies and protocols for doing this, which will contribute to new methodological approaches of wider international relevance, including IPEN protocols and tools for rapidly evaluating the built environment for its walkability. We will investigate the associations between objective and perceived environmental measures with the physical functioning of older adults. We will also comparatively map the Brazil and UK institutional and governance contexts involved in ageing and walkable environments, evaluate the capacity of this to assimilate evidence and bring together examples of innovative practice. The project will result in a range of policy guidance and toolkits to enhance future policy approaches. Key project partners include Embarq (Brazil) and Belfast Healthy Cities (UK), who will coordinate input to the project's Impact Advisory Groups from a wider range of stakeholders involved in the healthy ageing arenas in Brazil and the UK. This will involve joint Brazil-UK impact workshops, will ensure that the project remains focused on delivering valuable societal impact and in turn will influence future approaches to research in this field to create a virtuous circle of research-implementation-feedback-research. The project aims to deliver a wide range of bi-lingual outputs which will include: project website, video content and social media; peer-reviewed papers; presentations to local policy networks and conferences in Brazil and the UK; working papers and lay summaries, policy briefing papers; a revised protocol for capturing older adults PA data; a new knowledge translation self-assessment tool; revised tools for auditing the built environment and an Older-Adults Walkability Toolkit.


Research activity codes: 3.1 PRIMARY PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO MODIFY BEHAVIOURS OR PROMOTE WELL-BEING;3.2 INTERVENTIONS TO ALTER PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
Health categories: CANCER AND NEOPLASMS;CARDIOVASCULAR;METABOLIC AND ENDOCRINE;ORAL AND GASTROINTESTINAL;STROKE