Left Home Research Articles

Improving mental health and wellbeing in elderly people isolated at home due to architectural barriers: A community health intervention

ObjectivesTo explore the health effects of a community health intervention on older people who are isolated at home due to mobility problems or architectural barriers, to identify associated characteristics and to assess participants’ satisfaction. DesignQuasi-experimental before–after study. SettingFive low-income neighbourhoods of Barcelona during 2010–15. Participants147 participants, aged ≥59, living in isolation due to mobility problems or architectural barriers were interviewed before the intervention and after 6 months. InterventionPrimary Health Care teams, public health and social workers, and other community agents carried out a community health intervention, consisting of weekly outings, facilitated by volunteers. MeasurementsWe assessed self-rated health, mental health using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and quality of life through the EuroQol scale. Satisfaction with the programme was evaluated using a set of questions. We analysed pre and post data with McNemar tests and fitted lineal and Poisson regression models. ResultsAt 6 months, participants showed improvements in self-rated health and mental health and a reduction of anxiety. Improvements were greater among women, those who had not left home for ≥4 months, those with lower educational level, and those who had made ≥9 outings. Self-rated health [aRR: 1.29(1.04–1.62)] and mental health improvements [β: 2.92(1.64–4.2)] remained significant in the multivariate models. Mean satisfaction was 9.3 out of 10. ConclusionThis community health intervention appears to improve several health outcomes in isolated elderly people, especially among the most vulnerable groups. Replications of this type of intervention could work in similar contexts.

Compliance with Lockdown Regulations During the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Africa: Findings from an Online Survey

Background: Background: SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a nationally representative online survey conducted several weeks on the pandemic, this paper explores how South Africans responded to the compliance regulations laid down by the national government and factors associated with individuals’ confidence in their community adhering to lockdown regulations. Methods: The study was conducted using a closed-ended questionnaire on a data-free online platform. Additionally, a telephonic survey was included to accommodate individuals who do not have access to smart-phones. The study population consisted of respondents who were 18 years and older and living in South Africa (n=19 933). Data were benchmarked to the 2019 midyear population estimates. Descriptive statistics and bivariate logistic regression are presented. Results: Over a quarter (26.1%) of respondents reported that they had not left home, indicating compliance with the COVID-19 control regulations, and 55.3% who did leave their homes did so to purchase essential items. A small proportion (1.2%) reported that they had visited friends. People, classified as coloured, those who were more literate (those with secondary, matric and tertiary education status), those residing in disadvantaged areas (informal settlements, townships, rural areas and farms), and those who perceived their risk of contracting COVID-19 as moderate and high, reported not being confident of their community adhering to lockdown. Conclusion: Communication strategies must be employed to ensure that important information regarding the pandemic be conveyed in the most important languages and be dispatched via various communication channels to reach as many people as possible.

Dr Eric L. Friedland z’l

Eric Friedland was born in New York City in 1941. Soon after birth it was found he had defective hearing and his mother faced hardship as his father left home six months later. His mother moved to Boston to be near relatives. She made the decision that Eric would not learn sign language as she said this would destine him to move largely among deaf people. Instead he became proficient in lip reading. Initially he did go to a school for the hearing impaired, but his life took off when he moved to Hebrew Teachers College in Boston. Here was founded his deep and wide Jewish knowledge, as all lessons were taught in Hebrew. He graduated from Brookline High School in 1957 and from Boston University in 1960.

Ink of Nostalgia: A Review Article of Home is Not Here, Dear China, and Recent Scholarship on China and the Chinese Overseas

Abstract This article reviews Wang Gungwu, Home is Not Here (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2018) and Gregor Benton and Hong Liu’s Dear China: Emigrant Letters and Remittances, 1820–1980 (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018) in terms of how they reflect and revisit recent scholarship on China and the Chinese overseas published in English. Adopting different approaches, both books feature family correspondence within Chinese migrant families. This new focus unpacks concepts between ethnicity and language, and between family and homeland in migrants’ identity-making. Beginning from these studies, the article defends “Chinese overseas” as an intellectual concept and as a framework that allows an examination and comparison of the connections between China and its migrants as well as their descendants worldwide. In conclusion, the article argues that diasporas are made up of those who have left home but who miss that home, touching on the concept of nostalgia. Passing down the sense of nostalgia through successive generations via narrating, writing, and verifying, both in Sinophone and other languages, is a way by which Chinese diasporas construct their heritage. The process of retelling, rewriting, and reworking family heritage keeps the idea of home alive, wherever it might be, and whether or not it still exists.

Cinderella (That Story)

94 MARINA WARNER Cinderella (That Story) • lawyer rang to inform me that my mother had died. I was mentioned in her will, and he needed to discuss matters with me and would come to Mexico City to bring me “my legacy.” I told him I would have nothing to do with it. I considered that story over. But when the call ended, I couldn’t resist looking on the web. I found the notice in a local paper from Lake Geneva: “A mass will be said for the soul of Princess X von X, who departed this life at a clinic near her home on Lake Geneva. No Flowers. Donations to the National Association for the Protection of Children.” Browsing French and German language sites, I then came across a brief report: “Princess X (born Surrey, England, 1922) has died of complications after heart surgery at the Saint Luc clinic, Geneva. She was 85. She married Prince X von X in 1945, in a wedding that seemed to promise , in the post-war wreckage, a new era of youthful confidence, vigor, and beauty. The ragged Cinderella had found her prince; the story of their romance lit up hearts all over a weary world. These hopes, however, were soon crushed as the spirit of revolution took hold and, eventually, deposed the Prince in a coup that cost 37 lives. The royal family—their only child Aurelia was born in 1950—were forced into exile. They wandered throughout Europe seeking support from regimes to whom the Prince was related—at one time his cousins had occupied most of the thrones in Europe—but the regimes’ ideals of national identity and independence meant the Prince’s efforts were in vain. “Five years after losing his throne, Prince X von X died in Rome, under what many considered mysterious circumstances. After his death, his widow the Princess led a wandering life, beloved by gossip columnists and paparazzi. She took up Swiss citizenship in 1965 and settled in a lakeside villa near Geneva. She was a familiar, respected figure, regularly attending church, where the pastor, Father Tomas, remembers her graciousness. ‘She was without doubt our most elegant parishioner,’ he a 95 says. A female member of the congregation adds, ‘Always wearing dark glasses and fur coats from the best Parisian houses of days gone by, she brought to us memories of another era.’” I was always a disappointment to my mother, principally because, from the age of fifteen, I needed glasses and refused to wear dresses or go to the coiffeur. Or, as she put it, sighing with her tiny, sweet, supplicating voice, behave like a girl at all. I left home to go to university—the day I was accepted by distant Edinburgh was the most jubilant of my life. After the storms and fights and horrible rages of my teenage years, I hadn’t seen my mother in the flesh for, it must be, nearly thirty years. Distance and near total silence were the only ways of keeping closed the wounds we’d inflicted on each other. The news of her death was no surprise—she had reached a great age and had always been frail—but still, when the lawyer ended the call, I had to sit down. I drew in a breath and tried not to cry, but my whole throat and heart burned horribly, and I did cry—dry angry tears. The lawyer flew in three days later and told me my mother respected my wish not to be associated with the family, though it distressed her that I had chosen to live under an alias and work so hard and ruin my health in such a dangerous and polluted place as Mexico City. He brought with him a basket, a capacious, strong woven carrier of the sort women traders in West Africa use to transport their merchandise. Very unexpected from someone who preferred Louis Vuitton. “There is nothing of value in it,” the lawyer reassured me. “No family jewels, not that she had any left. Personal papers. Letters, diaries, which your mother kept, it seems, since the beginning until the very end. Love letters.” I flinched. “She told me...

Recreational Wayfaring in the Mountains

Leaving home by bike and arrive in China a year later, traveling the Via Alpina on foot with the family during the summer, crossing the Moroccan Atlas in two weeks alternating ascent by walking and descent by paraglider, leaving home to a stroll in the vicinity of a few hours ... so many practices that may relate to recreational wayfaring. “May”, because beyond what can be observed from the outside and which corresponds to the literal meaning of the term (to move along a route), wayfaring in ...

ОХОТА К ПЕРЕМЕНЕ МЕСТ? (Парадоксы и особенности эпизода расставания героя-ребенка с родным домом в викторианском романе)

It is analyzed the episode of a child leaving home for school in the novels «David Copperfield» and «Bleak House» by Charles Dickens and «Jane Eyre» by Charlotte Bronte. Studying at a boarding school and leaving home for it was quite a typical episode of life for the Victorians, but for the main characters of C. Dickens’ and Ch. Bronte’s novels the circumstances of leaving home are paradoxical and unusual so much, that it becomes a part of the initiation process. All of them are not happy at home. In fact, being orphans brought up by distant relatives (aunts or, in David’s case, cruel stepfather who is diminishing the role of David’s mother at home) they, strictly speaking, do not have home at all. That is why the characters are afraid to go to the new place but, at the same time, they are really longing for a change in their lives. Without being homesick, the children go through all other stages of initiation process. During their journeys they shut themselves off other people, feeling lonely among strangers and unsettled by the road. At school, they make new friend (stage of partnership). New people help David, Jane and Esther to know themselves better and reconsider their former experiences. As for the third stage (lethal stage, the experience of death), it is interesting that only Charlotte Bronte gives us the full, traditional representation of it, Dickens prefers his character to experience loss earlier (Esther) or in connection with long left home (David). The fourth stage (the transformation) is the child’s making peace with the world far from home. In all three novels the process of initiation, started with leaving home is necessary for the child to build a strong character, find one’s place in life and achieve happiness.

Investigating the Causes of Elderly People Leaving Home during Coronavirus Disease-19 Epidemic

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) disease affects all age groups, especially the elderly, and regarding the high mortality rate among the elderly, preventive measures are needed to reduce mortality in the elderly.
 AIM: This study was conducted to investigate the causes of in elderly people leaving home in time of COVID-19 epidemic.
 METHODS: The present study is a descriptive-analytical study performed on 1656 elderly people in Urmia, Iran, by simple random sampling method. The data collection tool in this study was a researcher-made questionnaire that included demographic characteristics, a questionnaire on the causes of the elderly leaving home during the COVID-19 epidemic. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher tests using SPSS 23 software.
 RESULTS: The results revealed that the highest concern of the elderly to leave home was to receive health services (45.89%) such as visiting the doctor or the caregiver, receiving medication, and so on. As the second priority, buying daily necessities such as bread, food, clothes … (42.75%) was one of the reasons for the elderly to leave home. Furthermore, education, gender, age, underlying diseases, occupation, and living conditions of the elderly were related to the needs of health services and living necessities and this relationship was statistically significant (p < 0.05).
 CONCLUSION: Effective interventions should be designed based on the causes of the elderly leaving home, including the use of home distance care and health ambassadors to estimate the needs and causes of leaving home. Therefore, the elderly would be protected from this disease and its mortality.

Population-Based Screening for Functional Disability in Older Adults.

Background and ObjectivesScreening for functional disability is a promising strategy to identify high-need older adults. We compare 2 disability measures, activities of daily living (ADLs), and life space constriction (LSC), in predicting hospitalization and mortality in older adults.Research Design and MethodsWe used the nationally representative National Health and Aging Trends Study of 30,885 observations of adults aged 65 years and older. Outcomes were 1-year mortality and hospitalization. Predictors were ADLs (receiving help with bathing, eating, dressing, toileting, getting out of bed, walking inside) and LSC (frequency of leaving home).ResultsOf respondents, 12.4% reported 3 or more ADLs and 10.8% reported rarely/never leaving home. ADL disability and LSC predicted high rates of 1-year mortality and hospitalization: of those with 3 or more ADLs, 46.4% died and 41.0% were hospitalized; of those who never/rarely left home, 40.7% died and 37.0% were hospitalized. Of those with both 3 or more ADLs and who never/rarely left home, 58.4% died. ADL and LSC disability combined was more predictive of 1-year mortality and hospitalization than either measure alone. ADL disability and LSC screens identified overlapping but distinct populations. LSC identified more women (72.6% vs 63.8% with ADL disability), more people who live alone (40.7% vs 30.7%), fewer who were White (71.7% vs 76.2%) with cancer (27.6% vs 32.4), and reported pain (67.1% vs 70.0%).Discussion and ImplicationsLSC and ADLs both independently predicted mortality and hospitalization but using both screens was most predictive. Routine screening for ADLs and LSC could help health systems identify those at high risk for mortality and health care use.

Legal and social consequences of substance use: Results from a nationwide study in Bangladesh

Substance use is a major public health concern and its consequences can destroy someone’s life. This study aimed to explore the legal and social consequences of substance use in Bangladesh. We conducted a nationwide descriptive cross-sectional study among relapse cases of substance use from January to December 2018. We visited 138 drug rehabilitation centers countrywide and were able to recruit 939 relapse cases, from where 28 cases were excluded due to incomplete data. Finally, data from 911 cases were analyzed. The majority (89.3%) of the study participants were 19-45 years old. Most commonly used drugs were amphetamine (76.1%), cannabis (75.0%), alcohol (54.3%), cough sirup (54.2%), heroin (47.0%) and sleeping pills (21.6%). Almost half (49.5%) of the substance users were arrested for drug use and among arrested cases, 52.1% were sent to jail. About 75% of the substance users experienced a lack of family interaction, 70% experienced destroyed family relationships, and 71.4% faced social stigma. Our study also found 60% of the participants were bullied, 50% were deprived or unwilling to have social interactions. Moreover, 13.8% of the participants left home, while 8% got divorced. Our data represented the significant impact of substance use on the legal aspect and social life of individuals. However, with a multi-dimensional treatment, rehabilitation, and social intervention approach, it is not impossible to overcome. Therefore, we believe it is imperative to focus on social awareness and to create a robust platform for health promotion and improve quality of life.

Counting the cost: COVID-19 school closures in South Africa and its impact on children

Background: When the new coronavirus rapidly spread across the globe, the impact of the virus on children was still unclear, and closing schools seemed the responsible thing to do. But much has been learnt since about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the effects of lockdown and school closures, both in South Africa and internationally.Aim: It shows that the mortality risk of the virus is extremely small for children, even when assuming an extremely pessimistic scenario for total COVID-19 deaths.Setting: We review the evidence at a national level in South Africa using nationally-representative datasets.Methods: This article offers evidence drawn from nationally representative household surveys, school surveys and administrative datasets, as well as research reports.Results: International evidence predominantly shows that children are not important transmitters of this virus, which is different from the case for influenza, for example. We show that there are considerable costs to the lockdown for children. These relate to foregone leaning opportunities, mental health, nutrition and physical health.Conclusion: We show that re-opening the economy whilst keeping schools closed results in many unintended consequences, including that children are at higher risk of being left home alone. Considering all of this, we propose that all children should return to schools, crèches and early childhood development (ECD)centres without any further delay.

A Case Report of Recurrent Covid-19 Infection of a Physician in Bangladesh: Re-infection or Persistence Infection?

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has created a large problem to the healthcare system all over the world. “Retest Positive” for SARS‐CoV‐2 from “recovered” patients (COVID‐19) has been reported recently which raised several questions for the COVID‐19 disease. In this case report, we had described a patient who became positive after 1 month from the initial infection with SARS-CoV-2. It is therefore possible that recurrences should be actually persistent infections in which PCR resulted falsely negative during initial infection when he left home isolation assuming himself disease free. The discharge criteria should be ensured for a recovered patient to prevent the relapse or persistence of COVID-19.
 Bangladesh Journal of Infectious Diseases, October 2020;7(suppl_2):S57-S60

The Effect of Boarding on the Mental Health of Primary School Students in Western Rural China.

Based on the panel data of 20,594 fourth- and fifth-grade students in the western provinces A and B in China, this paper analyzed the effect of boarding at school on the mental health of students using a combination of the propensity score matching (PSM) and difference-in-differences (DID) methods. The results showed that boarding had no significant effect on the mental health of students, but the tendency of loneliness among boarding school students was increased. Heterogeneity analysis found that fifth-grade students whose parents had both left home to work were more likely to have poorer mental health when boarding. This paper has essential policy significance for guiding rural primary schools to improve the mental health of boarding school students, especially left-behind children.

Why Do Beavers Leave Home? Lodge Abandonment in an Invasive Population in Patagonia

Research Highlights: Lodge abandonment by beavers is apparently a common phenomenon in Patagonia, but it is still poorly understood and we ignore what drives it. In relatively slow growth Nothofagus forests, resource depletion can impact abandonment while water availability may be a major driver in the semiarid steppe. Background and Objectives: North American beaver (Castor canadensis) was introduced in 1946 on the island of Tierra del Fuego (TDF) in southern Argentina. Since then, beavers have become a major disturbance affecting not only forest but also treeless steppe landscapes. Our goal was to determine the factors affecting lodge abandonment by beavers in two habitats of TDF: forest and steppe. Materials and Methods: A total of 47 lodges were surveyed between February and March from 2012 to 2014 in both habitat types, 22 in the forest and 25 in the steppe. To explain factors involved in lodge abandonment by beavers, we measured the following variables: water level variation, stream gradient, vegetation cover adjacent to shore and forest structure. Results: We recorded 24 abandonments events, with a similar proportion of lodges abandoned in both habitats. Our results revealed that lodge abandonment was mostly linked to water level fluctuations irrespective of habitat type. The water level at the entrances of the lodge generally decreased in abandoned lodges. Variables that characterize understory cover had some influence on lodge abandonment in the forest, and no effect in the steppe. Conclusions: Water level variation was associated with lodge abandonment in both habitats, and we found some evidence of resource depletion in the forest. However, we caution that changes in water level may be not only due to extrinsic factors but rather to beaver’s own activities or to a decay in pond maintenance following abandonment.

The Experience of COPD Patients in Lockdown Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PurposeOn March 16, 2020, the Spanish government declared a state of alarm due to the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were restricted to remain confined at home, and medical visits were cancelled for 3 months. The impact of this lockdown on the manifestations of COPD and the quality-of-life of these patients has not been explored.Patients and MethodsOne hundred patients with COPD were interviewed by telephone from May 2–18, 2020. The interviews included questions about the lockdown, missed medical appointments, fears of the disease, possible COVID-19 infection, and exacerbations of COPD suffered during this period and their management. In addition, the COPD Assessment Test, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression, and the 5-Dimension Euro Quality-of-Life questionnaires were administered.ResultsSixty-four (64%) patients claimed to have strictly complied with the lockdown, and only 42 (42%) stated they had left home at least once during lockdown. Only one patient (1%) was hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 13 (13%) patients presented an exacerbation of COPD self-managed at home with no admissions due to exacerbation of COPD during this period. A medical consultation or complementary test was cancelled in 90% of the patients, but 61% had a medical telephone visit with a high degree of satisfaction (mean 9.3/10). Most patients declared that their feeling regarding lung disease and general health was similar or even better during lockdown (82% and 81%, respectively).ConclusionOur results indicate that in general lockdown had a low impact on COPD patients. Only one patient was affected by COVID-19, but moderate exacerbations of COPD were not infrequent. Although many medical visits and test were cancelled, patients were very satisfied with the medical telephone visits.

Meet the parents: Parental interactions, social influences, and college drinking

Previous research suggests that, even in college, parents influence the alcohol consumption of their children directly and indirectly through peers. However, research has not tested whether face-to-face interactions with parents buffer students against social influences on drinking. In the current study, 1168 undergraduate students selected 5 people they contact regularly and then completed a 30-day daily diary reporting on interactions with those people and drinking behavior. The 401 students who selected a parent drank less and less often than those who did not select a parent as a frequent contact. In addition, on evenings when these students had met with their parents, they drank less alcohol and the association between others’ drinking and participant drinking was weakened. This adds to evidence suggesting that parents continue to influence emerging adults after they have left home and may be helpful in informing future intervention efforts.

Linking Lives in Ethnically Diverse Families: The Interconnectedness of Home Leaving and Retirement Transitions.

Drawing from a sociocultural life course perspective, this study examines the linkages between two age-related family transitions: young adult children leaving home and parental retirement. A sample of 580 ethnically diverse parents aged 50+ with at least one adult child aged 19-35 living in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was used in this study based on four cultural groups: British-, Chinese-, Persian/Iranian-, or South Asian-Canadian. Separate survival analyses are used to predict the timing of, and associations between children's leaving home and parents' retirement. Later timing of adult children's leaving home is associated with delays in retirement of parents and is influenced by a number of predictors. Main and interaction effects were supported for ethnicity, where belonging to the Persian/Iranian ethnic group (compared to British) delays home leaving, and belonging to Persian/Iranian and South Asian ethnic groups (compared to British) delays retirement timing.

You can't outrun your shadow

E.M. Reapy was born in 1984 and raised in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, Ireland. She was educated at NUI-Galway, University College Cork, and Queen’s University Belfast where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing. In addition to other non-writing jobs, Elizabeth spent eighty-eight days working on an orange farm in the Australian Outback in order to secure a two-year visa to live and work in Australia – experiences that resulted in Red Dirt, her highly-acclaimed first novel. For Red Dirt, Reapy received the prestigious 2017 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, an award for a body of work by a young Irish writer showing exceptional promise. Skin, her second novel, also shares an Australian setting, among others.I met E.M. Reapy for the first time when we read together for the ‘Over the Edge’ Reading Series at the Galway City Library in 2018. On that occasion, Elizabeth read two beautiful short prose fiction pieces. Of course I had heard of her acclaimed first novel Red Dirt but had not yet read it. The next day I went into Charlie Byrne’s and bought a copy of the novel. A primary focus of my research through the decades has been on the literature of the Irish diaspora and I was excited to read Reapy’s exploration of the lives of the young Irish who had left home and moved to Australia, most on short-term visas, in the wake of the 2008 recession that caused the collapse of the Irish economy and, for all intents and purposes, bankrupted Ireland. I found Red Dirt to be terrific in every respect: beautifully realized, terrifying in places, always absorbing, and moving. Reapy’s second novel, Skin, while quite different from Red Dirt, is equally important in its intense exploration of how difficult it can be for a person to live in her skin. After Dr. Gillian Dooley has heard me deliver a paper on E.M. Reapy’s work at the Irish Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ISAANZ), she asked me to interview Elizabeth for Writers in Conversation. The interview was conducted by email (January-April 2020).

Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 among young adults with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus amid the nationwide lockdown in India: A cross-sectional survey

AimsTo assess knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of young adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) towards COVID-19 amid nationwide lockdown in India. MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional web-based survey among young adults with T1DM (aged 18–30 years) in the North, Central, South, and West zones of India. It consisted of fifteen, five and eight questions pertaining to knowledge, attitude, and practices towards COVID-19, respectively. Certain questions relevant to T1DM were also incorporated. ResultsAfter exclusion, 212 participants were included (mean age = 25.1 ± 4.3 years; M:F = 10:11). The overall correct rate of the knowledge questionnaire was 83% (mean total knowledge score = 12.4 ± 1.9). Most (74%) had an average knowledge score (mean ± 1SD). Higher educational status, urban residence, and being married were associated with better knowledge scores; however, only urban residence was found to be statistically significant on multinomial logistic regression. Most (88%) felt that being a patient of T1DM, they were at higher risk of getting infected with COVID-19. At the same time, 98% were confident about self-protection. Fifty-one percent of respondents had left home amid lockdown mostly to procure insulin/injection needles/syringes/glucometer strips from the pharmacy. However, all were maintaining proper hand hygiene and majority were following routine dietary advice (95%) and administering prescribed insulin doses (99%). Seventy-two participants (34%) had experienced one or more episodes of hypoglycemia since the commencement of lockdown. ConclusionsYoung adults with T1DM have average knowledge, positive attitude, and healthy preventive practices towards COVID-19. Awareness campaigns targeted towards rural communities and providing doorstep delivery of insulin/needles/syringes may be more rewarding.

Consumer preferences for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) in Australia

Mobility-as-a-Service, or MaaS, offers potential consumers access to multiple transport modes and services, owned and operated by different mobility service providers, through an integrated digital platform for planning, booking and payment. We surveyed 3985 geographically and demographically representative Australians nationwide, to understand consumer demand and willingness to pay for MaaS in Australia. Our analysis reveals that there is definitely a market for MaaS in Australia. Depending on the service offering, we find that up to 46 per cent of the Australian population would be willing to adopt MaaS. On average, consumers prefer pay-as-you-go schemes to bundled schemes that offer unlimited access to one or more transport modes and services at fixed monthly costs. Local public transport, taxis and long-distance public transport are the most popular transport services; bikeshare is the least popular. Willingness to use MaaS is strongly correlated with age and lifecycle stage: young individuals who are employed full-time are most likely to use MaaS; older adults who have retired from the workforce and whose children have left home are least likely to use MaaS. Our analysis identifies Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney as good markets for MaaS trials and early launches.