Abstract
The world is facing the challenge of aging populations. Urban natural environments, including green spaces and blue spaces, have been demonstrated to have great benefits to the mental restoration of the elderly. However, the study of the specific characteristics of urban environments that are popular and the most restorative for the elderly is still lacking. Photo elicitation as visual stimuli was utilized to explore the differences in preference and psychological restoration of the elderly through the perception of the eight perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) in different types of urban environments. The results showed that: (1) The respondents had different perceptions of the eight PSDs in the different urban natural environments. Blue space and partly-closed green space were more preferred by the elderly, and also had more psychological restorative effects on the elderly. (2) There was no significant correlation between the number of highly perceived PSDs and preference, as well as between the number of highly perceived PSDs and psychological restoration. However, there was a significant correlation between preference and psychological restoration. (3) Partly-closed green space with more Serene and Refuge qualities, and blue space with more Serene, Refuge and Prospect properties were optimal characteristics for psychological restoration of the elderly. In addition, open green space with more Prospect, Serene and Social qualities, and closed green space with more Space, Refuge and less Nature properties could also increase psychological restoration of older adults. These findings can provide useful guidelines for restorative environmental design for the elderly in the future.
Highlights
Published: 9 January 2021The world is facing a dual challenge of aging populations and rapid urbanization.According to the World Health Organization [1], the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years old is predicted to nearly double from 12% to 22% between 2015 and 2050, reaching 2 billion by 2050
The results showed that the number of male and female participants was relatively equal (51% were male, 49% were female), and most of the participants were aged around 60–79 (83%)
The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between certain perceived sensory dimensions (PSDs) and psychological restoration, and the PSDs that had significant predictive effects on psychological restoration varied across different types of environments
Summary
Published: 9 January 2021The world is facing a dual challenge of aging populations and rapid urbanization.According to the World Health Organization [1], the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years old is predicted to nearly double from 12% to 22% between 2015 and 2050, reaching 2 billion by 2050. The world is facing a dual challenge of aging populations and rapid urbanization. Urbanization has resulted in increasing amounts of natural environments being replaced by built-up areas, and people have reduced their exposure to nature, which can cause urban inhabitants, especially the elderly, face serious physical and mental health problems [2]. Older adults already have reduced activity and restricted travel due to the deterioration of their physical functions [3,4], and are more vulnerable to health problems than other age groups. Being close in proximity to urban natural environments is important for their overall health and daily life. People are traditionally attracted to nature and the relationship between natural environments and human health has been a wide concern for environmental psychologists since 1980s. There are two main theories which have been widely used to guide the research on restorative environments: Stress Recovery Theory (SRT) [5] and Attention Restoration
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