Moving to age-in-place? Building evidence on community-based moves and home modification services as means to improve the home environment and decrease admission to skilled nursing facilities

FUNDING: 3 year postdoc fellowship project supported by FORMAS International Mobility grant. 2016-2018 at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA and 2018-2019 at Lund University in Sweden.

CONTENT: The vast majority of older people would prefer to age in place, but inaccessible dwellings may limit their possibilities. For countries to financially sustain social care systems, housing has become a hot topic in the political debate. The aim of the project is to investigate whether and how home modification services, relocation within the community and relocation to assisted living facilities can support aging-in-place and reduce admissions to skilled nursing home facilities. By joining the Center for Innovative Care in Aging at Johns Hopkins University, USA, I will get access to data sets from epidemiological and intervention based projects. By using data from The National Health and Aging Trends Study, I can analyze how the home environment predicts relocation to different forms of housing and whether older people move to dwellings that better support independence and healthy aging. By working in the Community Aging in Place: Advancing Better Living for Elders, a trial on an aging-in-place intervention including home modification services, I will acquire skills in intervention research. I will compare home modification services in Sweden and in the USA. I will interview older people in both countries in particular about aspects of housing potentially important for relocation. This project will increase our knowledge about healthy aging-in-place, which will contribute to the design of interventions on housing decision-making in old age and to public policy debate.