The Interaction of Retirement, Relocation, and the Perceived Home Environment, on Health and Quality of Life of Older Adults.

In older age, the environment, and in particular the home environment including the neighbourhood, becomes more influential for trajectories of health and quality of life. How one perceives one’s environment has become more in focus for research during the last decades: is the home environment a perceived hindrance or a resource for healthy ageing? Whether one feels in control over one’s home environment, and how feelings of meanings, attachment, and identity are towards the home, are arguably key aspects of the perceived environment that can influence health and quality of life throughout the ageing process. At the same time major life events that are commonly experienced, such as retirement and relocating, can directly influence different aspects of the perceived environment, or be influenced by them. Even though great variability and complexity is to be expected, for instance the reasons for relocating or retiring, as well as other experiences and happenings in life around retirement age, an essential step to improve healthy ageing is to investigate and understand any patterns and interactions between retirement, relocating, perceptions of one’s home, and health and quality of life.

This doctoral project, which is part of the larger research project Perceived Housing and Life Transitions: Good Ageing-in Place, aims to contribute empirically and theoretically to the understanding of how retirement, relocating, and the perceived home environment, interacts and influence the health and quality of life of older adults around retirement age. To build a better understanding, the project will utilize multiple methodological approaches, from longitudinal data on life events, the perceived home environment, and health and quality of life, to qualitative exploration older adults’ experiences about the interactions between retirement, relocating, and aspects of the perceived home environment.