TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring mobility patterns and social health of older Canadians living at home to inform decision aids about housing
T2 - A mixed-methods study
AU - Mochcovitch, Diogo
AU - Jones, Allyson
AU - Goutte, Joshua
AU - Plourde, Karine V.
AU - de Carvalho Corôa, Roberta
AU - Elf, Marie
AU - Meijering, Louise
AU - Sturge, Jodi
AU - Bérubé, Pierre
AU - Roche, Stéphane
AU - Guay-Bélanger, Sabrina
AU - Légaré, France
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Mochcovitch et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2025/4/17
Y1 - 2025/4/17
N2 - Introduction. Many tools support housing decisions for older adults but often overlook mobility patterns and social health. We explored these factors in older Canadians living at home to inform housing decisions.Methods. We conducted a mixed-methods study with 20 older adults (65+) from Quebec and Alberta living independently or in senior residences with outdoor mobility. Data collection included sociodemographic information, GPS tracking, walking interviews, daily journals, and in-depth interviews. Data from interviews, which explored physical and social assets and barriers to social health and mobility, were analyzed using deductive content analysis in NVivo 12. GPS data were subjected to spatial analysis in QGIS (Quantum Geographic Information System) to map activity spaces and mobility patterns by the number and distance of activities, activity types, and modes of transportation. Daily journals were transcribed into an Excel spreadsheet and compared with GPS data. Overall analysis was guided hierarchically by qualitative data, utilizing verbatim narratives and visualization (activity space maps) to illustrate data convergence.Results. Among 20 participants, 14 completed all activities, including GPS trackers. GPS maps showed participants mostly left home to drive for shopping or walking. Over 14 days, participants made an average of 10.4 (±5.8) trips and traveled 186.9 km (±130.4), averaging 16.8 km (±29.8) per day. Transportation modes included car (n=9), walking (n=5), and bus (n=2). Daily journals revealed that participants typically traveled alone. Interviews identified physical assets as libraries and supermarkets (n=10), while social assets were family support when desired (n=13) neighborhood familiarity (n=14), both contributing to social health. Winter weather was the most cited mobility barrier (n=13).Conclusions. These findings provide actionable insights to guide the development of user-informed decision support tools tailored to the housing decisions of Canadian older adults.
AB - Introduction. Many tools support housing decisions for older adults but often overlook mobility patterns and social health. We explored these factors in older Canadians living at home to inform housing decisions.Methods. We conducted a mixed-methods study with 20 older adults (65+) from Quebec and Alberta living independently or in senior residences with outdoor mobility. Data collection included sociodemographic information, GPS tracking, walking interviews, daily journals, and in-depth interviews. Data from interviews, which explored physical and social assets and barriers to social health and mobility, were analyzed using deductive content analysis in NVivo 12. GPS data were subjected to spatial analysis in QGIS (Quantum Geographic Information System) to map activity spaces and mobility patterns by the number and distance of activities, activity types, and modes of transportation. Daily journals were transcribed into an Excel spreadsheet and compared with GPS data. Overall analysis was guided hierarchically by qualitative data, utilizing verbatim narratives and visualization (activity space maps) to illustrate data convergence.Results. Among 20 participants, 14 completed all activities, including GPS trackers. GPS maps showed participants mostly left home to drive for shopping or walking. Over 14 days, participants made an average of 10.4 (±5.8) trips and traveled 186.9 km (±130.4), averaging 16.8 km (±29.8) per day. Transportation modes included car (n=9), walking (n=5), and bus (n=2). Daily journals revealed that participants typically traveled alone. Interviews identified physical assets as libraries and supermarkets (n=10), while social assets were family support when desired (n=13) neighborhood familiarity (n=14), both contributing to social health. Winter weather was the most cited mobility barrier (n=13).Conclusions. These findings provide actionable insights to guide the development of user-informed decision support tools tailored to the housing decisions of Canadian older adults.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105003080889
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0320876
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0320876
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105003080889
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 20
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 4 April
M1 - e0320876
ER -