Barriers, Facilitating Factors, and Intersectoral Collaboration for Promoting Active Mobility for Healthy Aging-A Qualitative Study within Local Government in Germany.

Tanja Brüchert,Paula Quentin,Gabriele Bolte,Sabine Baumgart

doi:10.3390/ijerph18073807

Abstract

The promotion of walking and cycling to stay active and mobile offers great potential for healthy aging. Intersectoral collaboration for age-friendly urban planning is required in local government to realize this potential. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the heads of planning and public health departments in city and district administrations of a Metropolitan Region in Germany to identify factors influencing action on the cross-cutting issue of active mobility for healthy aging. Although some administrations are working on the promotion of active mobility, they consider neither the needs of older people nor health effects. A lack of human resources and expertise, mainly due to the low priority placed on the issue, are described as the main barriers for further strategic collaboration. Furthermore, the public health sector often focuses on pathogens as the cause of morbidity and mortality, reducing their acceptance of responsibility for the topic. Facilitating factors include the establishment of new administrative structures, projects with rapid results that create awareness and credibility among citizens and politicians, additional staff with expertise in health promotion, and political commitment. In the future, new administrative structures for intersectoral collaboration are needed in order to consider various perspectives in complex developments, such as healthy aging, and to benefit from synergies.

Highlights

In the coming decades, the world will face the major demographic trend of aging.Germany is no exception, currently having one of the highest proportions of elderly people aged 65 years and older in the whole European Union [1]
After describing the applied methods, we present the results by levels of influence highlighting interrelationships of its components to address the cross-cutting issue of active mobility promotion among elderly in the public health and planning sectors
The issue of promoting active mobility for healthy aging through urban development is as an example of a cross-cutting topic that is not addressed jointly by the public health and planning departments

Summary

Introduction

The world will face the major demographic trend of aging.Germany is no exception, currently having one of the highest proportions of elderly people aged 65 years and older in the whole European Union [1]. Increasing life expectancies suggest that governments should consider successful and healthy aging as an important public health topic. For healthy aging, including the prevention of loneliness, it is important to stay active and mobile [2]. Active transport modes, such as walking and cycling, can support an active lifestyle. These activities substantially contribute to population health and life expectancy [3] and are crucial in the maintenance of autonomy and independence in later life [4,5]. Older adults with increasing mobility impairments face problems getting outdoors because of obstacles in

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion