Housing condition, health status, and age-friendly housing modification in Europe: The last resort?

Abstract

As suggested by the person-environment fit theory, how older people interact with and modify their housing is an important determinant for their health and well-being. For the first time, this study investigates the constraints of housing modifications innovatively. It finds that promoting housing modification depends not only on older people's affordability emphasised by previous studies but more fundamentally, their recognition of the role of age-friendly housing and the proper timing of modification. Based on a longitudinal survey data of 5719 older people in 12 European countries from 2015 to 2017, we find that older people tend to take “last resort” actions, that is, housing modifications are rare (21.93%) and mostly happen when they are 80 years old and above. In addition, the ordered logit regression shows that the limited scope of housing modification is mainly induced by the poor housing conditions and physical disabilities of older people. Although the age-friendly housing modification has a preventive effect on older individuals, this limited, late, and passive action debases the preventive value of age-friendly housing to the aged population's health. To Europe and developing countries, measures to raise the older people's recognition regarding the benefits, proper time, and scope of housing modifications are suggested in the paper.