Built Environment Age-Friendly Optimisation Strategies: Promoting the Elderly Food Market Usage as an Example

Type of the Paper: Peer-reviewed Conference Paper / Full Paper

Track title: Metropolization and the Right to the City

Built Environment Age-Friendly Optimisation Strategies: Promoting the Elderly Food Market Usage as an Example

Wei Yue ¹ and Yang Dongfeng ^2,*

1. Dalian University of Technology, China; weiyue03@mail.dlut.edu.cn

2. Dalian University of Technology, China; yangdongfeng@dlut.edu.cn

* Corresponding author

Abstract: City researchers support the elderly to actively enhance physical activities by intervening in built environments to benefit the healthy development of the elderly. The aim of this study is to propose built environment optimisation strategies to promote the physical activity level of the elderly. The research took the elderly food market usage in Dalian as an example, and divided the built environment into accessibility and attractiveness dimensions. The methods of combining the statistical quantitative analysis and qualitative comparative analysis were applied. We found that the spatial distribution density, the minimum distance of space, the type and the diversity of facility were key factors affecting usage frequency of the elderly food market. Furthermore, combinations of “the farmer market,” and the “high spatial distribution densities and rich types” had the high possibility and applicability to enhance activities of buying food in the region. Based on this, four optimisation models of built environments were proposed for promoting usage levels in the elderly. The findings of this study could match urban supply with the elderly’s needs, and it is a feasible way to provide fine design strategies for realisation of age-friendly cities.

Keywords: age-friendly; physical activity; built environment; fine design

1. Introduction

Regular participation in physical activity is an important contributor to healthy aging (Tan, Guo & Jiang, 2010, as cited in Dou, Pynoos & Feng, 2015). Through identification and combination of built environment elements, urban space can be created with practical optimisation strategies to meet the needs of the elderly, which can effectively promote their active participation physical activity (Yu, 2020). For the urban elderly population, daily physical activities can be divided into business, leisure, and sports. Among them, business activities led by food shopping provide regular opportunities for the elderly to travel (Cao & Chai, 2006). The elderly food market usage may be affected by the accessibility and attractiveness of the built environment, with accessibility providing opportunities for events and attractiveness providing motivation for events (Qin & Zhang, 2019). Overall, the relationship between physical activities and built environments is intricate. A few elements, independent qualitative or quantitative research cannot propose specific implementation content for construction of age-friendly built environments (Lee & Moudon, 2016), and this is precisely an important breakthrough that positively affects physical activities of the elderly.

In recent years, the impact of built environment on physical activities of the elderly has become a hot topic in the urban planning field. Specifically, research points out that factors such as travel distance (Ma et al., 2014), location, and spatial structure (Ding, Wei & Jiao, 2017), functional richness, and environmental quality will all affect physical activity patterns of the elderly (WHO, 2007). In addition, the location conditions and environmental quality of the food market directly affect the selection and use of the elderly activity venues (Wang & Zhang, 2016). In terms of improvement suggestions, design a community walking system that meets the travel needs of the elderly (Chai & Li, 2005, as cited in Wang et al., 2015), strengthen the walking connection between parks and the food market (Cao & Zhuo, 2017), and it is recommended to increase the functional richness of the food market and enhance the vitality of the space (Wu & Chen, 2017). These conclusions provide new ideas for urban built environment planning and regulation. However, when actual space cannot fully optimise fragmented elements, we still don’t know what the key built environment elements are that influence the elderly food market usage. In the face of the differences and complexity of regional conditions, where the combination of influencing factors should be selected as the best to promote the improvement of conditions for physical activities of the elderly.

So, from the perspective of elderly-friendly planning, this study combines the advantages of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis to find a combination of multiple elements of the built environment that promote the elderly food market usage frequency to guide the optimisation of the actual urban built environments. Specifically, this study selected spatial distribution density, minimum distance in space, actual travel distance, the number of intersections as the factors to measure accessibility, and selects type, land use nature, facilities diversity, street feature richness, and land use mix as measures of attractiveness. These elements are independent variables. Data on individual attributes and use frequency of the food market of 210 elderly over 60 years old living in Dalian, China were collected through a questionnaire survey as dependent variables. Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to identify key influencing factors. Qualitative comparative analysis was used to analyse the combined effect of influencing factors, and then summed up four built environment optimisation modes. This study could propose a way to construct built environment optimisation strategies to promote the physical activity level of the elderly, thereby providing a theoretical reference for the construction of age-friendly cities.

2. Methods and Data

1. Research methods

Aristotle (1962) proposed that similar people cannot allow cities to exist. Kevin Lynch (1960) pointed out that a region is a relatively large area of a city that observers can imagine entering, with some common characteristics. However, current research on built environments and elderly physical activities are lacking in combined individual and regional analyses. This study combines statistical quantitative analysis and qualitative comparative analysis of the research characteristics at the individual and regional levels, in order to provide new ideas for the planning field to promote physical activity of the elderly. The specific research method includes three steps.

Firstly, correlation and multiple regression analysis methods were used to analyse the correlation between built environment elements and the elderly food market usage frequency. The purpose is to screen out the built environment influencing factors of physical activity of the elderly, and eliminate irrelevant variables. Secondly, the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method was used for in-depth analysis of the relationship between the built environment factors and the elderly food market usage frequency. The independent variable in this step was the significant influencing factor screened in the previous step, and the dependent variable was the average use frequency of the elderly food market in different regions. The purpose is to explore the built environment impact effect at the regional level and verify the effect difference of the combination of influencing factors. Finally, we summarised the above analysis results, and found out the specific factors that have a negative impact on the elderly food market usage according to the current situation of the region to determine the improvement methods to form some environment optimisation models.

1. Measurement methods and data

We chose the Dalian urban area as our study area to examine the elderly food market usage in the Chinese context. At the built environment measurement level, a total of nine measurement elements were selected from the two dimensions of accessibility and attractiveness. Used points of interest and electronic maps to obtain data, and the specific measurement methods of the elements are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Measurement method of built environment factors in food market

At the elderly activities measurement level, the questionnaire survey collected 210 valid samples, including 102 males and 108 females, with an average age of 71 years. This study used random sampling methods, using a combination of questionnaires and structured interviews to ask elderly residents about their weekly food shopping activities, personal attributes, and home addresses. This study took the use frequency of the weekly food market as an indicator of individual food shopping activities for the elderly, and stipulates that 1–3 times a week were used as low frequency, 4-5 times were used as medium frequency, and 6 times and above were used as high frequency.

In addition, since the dependent variable in the QCA method is the average use frequency of the elderly food market in different regions, we grouped the survey subjects were grouped according to their residential addresses and the spatial distribution of food shopping activities, and the average food market usage frequency of the samples in the group was used as a measure of the elderly food shopping activity in the region. The borders of the area were all bounded by roads, natural mountains or water bodies. A total of 16 regions were divided into regions, and there was a significant gap in the activity of the elderly (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Spatial distribution, regional division, and activity result statistics of survey samples

3. Results

3.1. Identification of factors affecting the elderly food market usage

According to correlation analysis, in addition to the richness of street functions and the degree of land use mixing, there were a number of built environment factors that had significant correlations with the frequency of use of individual food markets. There was a high degree of positive correlation between the spatial distribution density and the elderly food market usage, and the impact of different types of food markets and land use on the elderly usage had significant differences (Table 2). The results indicated that the occurrence of physical activity in the elderly required the dual support of opportunity and motivation.

Table 2. Correlation between built environment elements and individual use frequency

According to multiple regression analysis, market variables had the highest explanatory power and reached a significant level, followed by the facility network diversity variable. In addition, from the variable standard coefficient, attractiveness had a stronger effect on the elderly food market usage frequency than accessibility (Table 3). This showed that for the elderly individuals, the street market had the strongest effect in promoting their food shopping activities, and the diversity of facilities and outlets was an important factor in the occurrence of their food shopping activities. The street market not only provided residents with fresh and cheap food, but also an important place for social interaction (Liu & Yang, 2016).

Table 3. Results of multiple regression analysis model between built environment factors and individual use frequency

Note: Dependent variable = usage frequency.

3.2. Combination of factors affecting the regional food market average usage

The fuzzy-set QCA analysis found that for the 16 regions studied, 50% of the regions had a higher activity in buying food. The results could be explained by following three ways:

1. The spatial distribution density of the food market was high;

2. There was a street market;

3. The minimum space was close and there was a wet market.

The results showed that spatial distribution density represented potential selection opportunities of the food market in the region. The rich selection opportunities and the active business atmosphere had a positive effect on senior citizens’ food shopping activities, thereby promoting the increase of regional activity. The presence of a street market in an area could greatly increase the activity of the elderly in buying food. The minimum distance in space reflected convenience of food market outlets in the area. Good convenience was one of the main conditions for promoting the elderly to travel (Qin & Zhang, 2019).

The multi-value QCA analysis found that there were 62.5% of regions where the activity of buying food is higher. The results could be explained by following three ways:

1. The spatial distribution density of the food market was high and there were rich type food markets.

2. The minimum space was close. There were supermarkets and street markets.

3. The minimum space was close and there was a wet market.

The results showed that the minimum space and type of the food market were the most effective built environment factors for promoting the activity of buying food in the area. This may be because the configuration and layout of commercial service facilities had greatly interfered with the mode of shopping and travel activities for the elderly (Huang & Wu, 2015), and the type of food market directly affected their service methods and quality (Liu, Astrid & Harry, 2020), which was an important characteristics of space use.

3.3. Built environment optimisation

Through the screening of the built environment elements and the combination of the influencing factors, the internal connection between the built environment and the elderly food market usage was found. The analysis showed that the types of food markets, the density of food markets, and the minimum spatial distance had independent and combined effects on the elderly food market usage frequency and may be the key optimisation factors of built environments. Furthermore, we summarised the problems existing in built environments of Dalian food markets, and proposed four types of food market built environment optimisation models (Figure 4).

Optimis-ation icon
Present situation	inadequate attractiveness of the elderly community	the environment of street market is not good
Strategy	pay attention to the diversification of food market types	reserve and optimise the street market space
Optimis-ation icon
Present situation	missing street market, fewer food markets	the size and accessibility of the food market basically meet the demand, and it is difficult to improve
Strategy	add connecting roads to eliminate traffic barriers	set up leisure facilities and spaces

Figure 4. Optimisation model of food market built environment

First, for older communities with more elderly residents, not only the number of food markets must be ensured, but also the diversification of food market types to meet the needs of the elderly as much as possible. The ground floor of the building or the public space in the community provided the elderly with a place to buy food that met their preferences, made up for the disadvantages of the rigid planning of the food market, and enhanced the built environment promotion of the physical activities of the elderly. Second, for areas with the street market but poor environment, it should be approved space optimisation and management policy adjustments were used to retain fairgrounds and gave full play to their advantages in attractiveness to the elderly. Third, for areas where there was no market or the number of food markets was insufficient, the existing food markets (especially the wet market) accessibility and service quality to improve the occurrence of food shopping activities for the elderly. Fourth, for areas where the size and accessibility of the food market basically met the elderly’s needs, we could focus on the elderly’s sense of place experience. For example, the existing recreational street furniture was arranged in appropriate spaces around the food market, and accessible design methods were used to provide older residents with leisure and resting spaces.

4. Discussion

From the above analysis results, it can be seen that the elderly food market usage frequency is affected by different elements of the built environment. As the physical condition of the elderly declines, their travel activities are more susceptible to disturbances by quality of the urban environment. A good built environment may promote the physical activity level of the elderly, but a poor built environment may be a barrier to the participation of the elderly. Possible reasons for this result are discussed below. On the one hand, the problem of population aging and unbalanced allocation of resources has become prominent. Existing service facilities and environmental conditions cannot meet the needs of health and equity and old-age care at home, which prevents the elderly from forming an active and healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, planning the policy transformation is in its infancy, and the current planning work is difficult to cope with the predicament of urban space optimisation implementation under stock planning, making it difficult to achieve the goal of building a friendly city for the elderly. Therefore, on the basis of in-depth understanding of the relationship between built environments and the physical activity of the elderly, we need to optimise existing built environments for the aging, and strive to promote the construction of elderly-friendly cities.

5. Conclusions

This study adopted multiple methods to explore the relationship between built environments and the elderly food market usage frequency, and tried to propose some optimization models for the specific built environment. The main conclusions are as follows. In terms of factor identification, the correlation analysis excluded the richness of street functions and the degree of land use mixing, and these two built environment factors had a weak impact on the elderly food market usage. The multiple regression model pointed out that the diversity of markets and facility outlets had a significant impact on the grocery shopping activities of the elderly. In terms of factor combination, qualitative comparative analysis preliminarily determined that the combination of “minimum spatial distance and farmer markets” had a higher possibility to improve the average usage frequency of the elderly in the area, and the combination of “high spatial distribution density and a variety of types of food markets” could have high applicability for promoting the occurrence of food shopping among the elderly. Finally, according to the data analysis results and the status quo of different regions in Dalian, four optimisation models for food market built environments were proposed. The optimisation content mainly included increasing the diversity of food market types, improving road smoothness, and improving environmental comfort, etc.

To sum up, the combination of statistical analysis and qualitative comparative analysis not only could accurately identify influencing factors, but also could explore the interactions between factors, and finally to clarify the intrinsic relationship between regional conditions and improvement approaches. According to the analysis results and the type of the built environment in the current area, selecting the corresponding optimisation model may improve the service quality of built environments to the elderly from the bottom up. The optimisation model may improve urban adaptability in the context of inventory planning, and may protect the elderly right to healthy living.

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