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Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities

The World Health Organization and the United Nations have increasingly acknowledged the importance of urban green space (UGS) for healthy ageing. However, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India with exponential ageing populations have inadequate UGS. This qualitative study examined the...

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Autores principales: Adlakha, Deepti, Chandra, Mina, Krishna, Murali, Smith, Lee, Tully, Mark A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7914589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33557432
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041491
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author Adlakha, Deepti
Chandra, Mina
Krishna, Murali
Smith, Lee
Tully, Mark A.
author_facet Adlakha, Deepti
Chandra, Mina
Krishna, Murali
Smith, Lee
Tully, Mark A.
author_sort Adlakha, Deepti
collection PubMed
description The World Health Organization and the United Nations have increasingly acknowledged the importance of urban green space (UGS) for healthy ageing. However, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India with exponential ageing populations have inadequate UGS. This qualitative study examined the relationships between UGS and healthy ageing in two megacities in India. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling in New Delhi and Chennai and semi-structured interviews were conducted with consenting participants (N = 60, female = 51%; age > 60 years; fluent in English, Hindi, or Tamil). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated, and analysed using inductive and thematic analysis. Benefits of UGS included community building and social capital, improved health and social resilience, physical activity promotion, reduced exposure to noise, air pollution, and heat. Poorly maintained UGS and lack of safe, age-friendly pedestrian infrastructure were identified as barriers to health promotion in later life. Neighbourhood disorder and crime constrained older adults’ use of UGS in low-income neighbourhoods. This study underscores the role of UGS in the design of age-friendly communities in India. The findings highlight the benefits of UGS for older adults, particularly those living in socially disadvantaged or underserved communities, which often have least access to high-quality parks and green areas.
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spelling pubmed-79145892021-03-01 Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities Adlakha, Deepti Chandra, Mina Krishna, Murali Smith, Lee Tully, Mark A. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The World Health Organization and the United Nations have increasingly acknowledged the importance of urban green space (UGS) for healthy ageing. However, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India with exponential ageing populations have inadequate UGS. This qualitative study examined the relationships between UGS and healthy ageing in two megacities in India. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling in New Delhi and Chennai and semi-structured interviews were conducted with consenting participants (N = 60, female = 51%; age > 60 years; fluent in English, Hindi, or Tamil). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated, and analysed using inductive and thematic analysis. Benefits of UGS included community building and social capital, improved health and social resilience, physical activity promotion, reduced exposure to noise, air pollution, and heat. Poorly maintained UGS and lack of safe, age-friendly pedestrian infrastructure were identified as barriers to health promotion in later life. Neighbourhood disorder and crime constrained older adults’ use of UGS in low-income neighbourhoods. This study underscores the role of UGS in the design of age-friendly communities in India. The findings highlight the benefits of UGS for older adults, particularly those living in socially disadvantaged or underserved communities, which often have least access to high-quality parks and green areas. MDPI 2021-02-04 2021-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7914589/ /pubmed/33557432 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041491 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Adlakha, Deepti
Chandra, Mina
Krishna, Murali
Smith, Lee
Tully, Mark A.
Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities
title Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities
title_full Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities
title_fullStr Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities
title_full_unstemmed Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities
title_short Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities
title_sort designing age-friendly communities: exploring qualitative perspectives on urban green spaces and ageing in two indian megacities
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7914589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33557432
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041491
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