Designing Communities to Support Healthy Living in Aging Residents
Condition: Healthy Aging
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The Housing for Health team is making evidence-based recommendations to the developer and
      design team of an upcoming congregate-living development to support the healthy living of
      older adults who will be moving into the new building. There may also be opportunities to
      improve the surrounding neighbourhood by collaborating with the municipality where the
      development is located. We will evaluate whether the intervention leads to changes in the
      perceived, micro-scale, and macro-scale physical built environment (BE), and whether there
      are impacts on the physical activity (PA), healthy eating, and social connections of
      residents. In parallel, we will gather qualitative data to provide a more in-depth
      understanding of how the BE may facilitate or hinder resident's healthy living behaviours.
    

Detailed description: 
      Background: The Housing for Health team is making evidence-based recommendations to the
      developer and design team of an upcoming congregate-living development to support the healthy
      living of older adults who will be moving into the new building. There may also be
      opportunities to improve the surrounding neighbourhood by collaborating with the municipality
      where the development is located. We will evaluate whether the intervention leads to changes
      in the perceived, micro-scale, and macro-scale physical built environment (BE), and whether
      there are impacts on the physical activity (PA), healthy eating, and social connections of
      residents. In parallel, we will gather qualitative data to provide a more in-depth
      understanding of how the BE may facilitate or hinder resident's healthy living behaviours.

      Methods: This project employs a quasi-experimental pre-post design. The quantitative built
      environment (BE) evaluation includes assessments of macroscale (e.g., layout of communities)
      and microscale (e.g., street details and characteristics) changes as measured using
      Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Microscale Audit Pedestrian Streetscapes (MAPS)
      audits, respectively. For the quantitative resident evaluation, residents moving into the
      intervention site or who currently live at a control site will be invited to participate.
      Study outcomes will be measured using self-report (i.e., surveys) and objective tools (i.e.,
      accelerometers, Global Positioning System). The qualitative resident-environment component
      will be conducted using in-depth semi-structured interviews with building residents, family
      members, and stakeholders involved in the design/development and/or operation of the
      intervention site and others living in the developments' neighbourhoods. Participant
      observations will be completed in the building and neighbourhood environments of the
      intervention site.

      Discussion: Findings will provide evidence on whether and how comprehensive changes to the BE
      of a building, site, and/or neighbourhood of a congregate living facility can impact PA,
      healthy eating, and social connections of older adults. Successful aspects of interventions
      will be scaled up in future work. We will disseminate findings to a broad audience including
      the scientific community via peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, and
      discussion panels; and private, public, and non-profit sectors via reports, public
      presentations and/or communications via our partners and their networks.
    

Intervention name(s): Residents moving into a congregate-living development with more features that support healthy living
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Our team is making evidence-based recommendations to the developer and design team of an upcoming congregate-living development to support the physical activity, healthy eating, and social connections of residents moving into the new building(s). We hope for the developer to integrate into the new building(s) as many as possible of our team's built environment design and amenity recommendations into their site and/or building plans. Additionally, discussions with the municipality are also occuring on built environment design and amenity recommendations to improve the neighbourhood surrounding the site. Although our team has provided these recommendations, it is ulimatily up to the discretion of the developer and the municipality as to whether and what design and amenity changes are made.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: The intervention arm will be exposed to the built environment intervention, and the control arm will not.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Social connections; Healthy eating; Physical activity; Built environment; Older adults