Mediation effects of social isolation on pathways connecting public transport use with subjective wellbeing among older people

Abstract

BackgroundPublic transport use is essential for the subjective wellbeing of older people. A well-designed public transport system may support social participation that can alleviate social isolation and improve subjective wellbeing. However, it remains unclear about the mediating effects of social isolation on the pathway linking public transport use and subjective wellbeing. MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among 826 older people in Hong Kong, a well-known transit-oriented development city. Participants were asked questions about their public transport use behaviour (measured by mode choice and frequency of use), social isolation (measured by social network and loneliness) and subjective wellbeing (measured by life satisfaction, hedonic wellbeing and eudaimonic wellbeing). We used multivariable linear regression to explore the linkages between public transport use behaviour and subjective wellbeing. Then, mediation analysis was applied to investigate the role of objective and subjective social isolation on these associations. ResultsWe found that (1) Mixed-mode use of public transport (metro and bus) is positively associated with all the three dimensions of subjective wellbeing (p < 0.01); (2) Social network suppressed the association between mode choice and subjective wellbeing (p < 0.02), and loneliness mediated this association (p < 0.01); (3) Both social network and loneliness mediated the association between frequency of use and subjective wellbeing for mixed-mode users (metro and bus) (p < 0.04), while only social networks mediated this association for single-mode users (metro or bus) (p < 0.05); (4) Social network explained 6–31% of the total association of public transport use and subjective wellbeing, and loneliness explained 14–41%. DiscussionWe found the mixed use of metro and bus is beneficial to the subjective wellbeing of older people. Objective and subjective social isolation partly explained the total associations. These findings have policy implications for public transport planning concerning the ageing population.