Health promoting environments for an aging population – a register and GIS study to assess effects of urban green and low-noise neighborhoods on social service and nursing home use

The Swedish population is aging, and parallel to reinforcements in elderly care, efforts are needed to facilitate for older people to cope in their daily lives. Neighborhoods with high percentages of urban green areas and low noise levels have been shown to have positive effects on health and wellbeing, and to increase physical and social activity. Such health promoting environments could thus reduce the need for support to manage the daily lives among older people.

We will establish three cohorts consisting of individuals who lived in Malmö or Kristianstad, and was 65 years, or older, in 2010, 2015, and 2019, respectively. These cohorts will be linked to the national register containing information about home care provided according to the Social Service Act. Information on urban green areas (amount and distance to closest) will be obtained through Geographical Information Systems (GIS). For individuals living in the City of Malmö we will also add information about the modeled noise at the place of residence.

Data will be used to investigate the possible effects of health-promoting environments on utilization of home care, using current neighborhood as well as the place of residence five and ten years earlier, respectively. Furthermore, individuals who moved to a nursing home 2010-2019 will be compared to the rest of the cohort in order to investigate whether the neighborhood environment affects the risk of moving to a nursing home.