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Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown

Introduction: Recent proposed major construction projects in New York City’s Chinatown often last multiple years. Little is known about the health impact of construction on vulnerable populations such as older adults. In Chinatown, approximately 20% of residents are older adults, live below the pove...

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Autores principales: Kwon, Simona, Tan, Yi-Ling, Wong, Jennifer, Pan, Janet
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7741631/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.090
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author Kwon, Simona
Tan, Yi-Ling
Wong, Jennifer
Pan, Janet
author_facet Kwon, Simona
Tan, Yi-Ling
Wong, Jennifer
Pan, Janet
author_sort Kwon, Simona
collection PubMed
description Introduction: Recent proposed major construction projects in New York City’s Chinatown often last multiple years. Little is known about the health impact of construction on vulnerable populations such as older adults. In Chinatown, approximately 20% of residents are older adults, live below the poverty level (34%), have a disability (47%), and nearly half report limited English proficiency. Objectives: We are conducting a mixed methods study to describe possible health and psychosocial outcomes of construction on older adults in Chinatown. Methods: We used a community-engaged modified Delphi process to identify priority areas related to construction and older adults which included: 1) a scoping review of the health impact of long-term construction; 2) key informant interviews of academic experts; and 3) convened community stakeholder leaders to review key focus areas and evidence-informed, culturally-relevant mitigation strategies. Five priority topics were identified: 1) Construction site emissions; 2) Noise; 3) Outdoor nocturnal lighting; 4) Neighborhood changes; and 5) Relocation. Results: Long-term construction contributes to adverse effects of air pollution, noise, and changes in the environment, with exposure to particulate matter and unwanted noise associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Unsafe sidewalk due to construction increase the risk of falling, the leading cause of death among NYC seniors. Construction-related stressors may isolate older adults from vital services and social networks. Conclusion: Long-term construction poses serious health implications for older adults. Stakeholders should adopt a community-engaged approach and identify meaningful community priorities to inform practical solutions to mitigate the impact of construction on vulnerable Chinatown older adults.
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spelling pubmed-77416312020-12-21 Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown Kwon, Simona Tan, Yi-Ling Wong, Jennifer Pan, Janet Innov Aging Abstracts Introduction: Recent proposed major construction projects in New York City’s Chinatown often last multiple years. Little is known about the health impact of construction on vulnerable populations such as older adults. In Chinatown, approximately 20% of residents are older adults, live below the poverty level (34%), have a disability (47%), and nearly half report limited English proficiency. Objectives: We are conducting a mixed methods study to describe possible health and psychosocial outcomes of construction on older adults in Chinatown. Methods: We used a community-engaged modified Delphi process to identify priority areas related to construction and older adults which included: 1) a scoping review of the health impact of long-term construction; 2) key informant interviews of academic experts; and 3) convened community stakeholder leaders to review key focus areas and evidence-informed, culturally-relevant mitigation strategies. Five priority topics were identified: 1) Construction site emissions; 2) Noise; 3) Outdoor nocturnal lighting; 4) Neighborhood changes; and 5) Relocation. Results: Long-term construction contributes to adverse effects of air pollution, noise, and changes in the environment, with exposure to particulate matter and unwanted noise associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Unsafe sidewalk due to construction increase the risk of falling, the leading cause of death among NYC seniors. Construction-related stressors may isolate older adults from vital services and social networks. Conclusion: Long-term construction poses serious health implications for older adults. Stakeholders should adopt a community-engaged approach and identify meaningful community priorities to inform practical solutions to mitigate the impact of construction on vulnerable Chinatown older adults. Oxford University Press 2020-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7741631/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.090 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Abstracts
Kwon, Simona
Tan, Yi-Ling
Wong, Jennifer
Pan, Janet
Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown
title Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown
title_full Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown
title_fullStr Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown
title_full_unstemmed Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown
title_short Mitigating the Impact of Long-Term Construction on the Health of Older Adult Residents in New York City’s Chinatown
title_sort mitigating the impact of long-term construction on the health of older adult residents in new york city’s chinatown
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7741631/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.090
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