Urban Neighbourhood Outdoor Environments and Age-friendliness: A Study of Jaipur City, India

An age-friendly built environment is crucial for older adults to retain an active lifestyle, impacting their ability to independently execute all their daily activities in out-of-home settings. The availability of public spaces within outdoor environments is often associated with improving social inclusiveness and additional health benefits. The aspect of an outdoor built environment for geriatric populations to enjoy good health and well-being remains under-studied in the context of Indian cities. Therefore, the study attempts to understand the key challenges experienced by older adult populations towards their daily life activities in the outdoor built environment in Indian cities. The study hypothesized that the quality of neighbourhood public and green open spaces, along with the accessibility to such outdoor spaces, strongly impact the overall satisfaction level of older adults. A mixed method approach has been adopted to conduct the study, incorporating observational analysis and surveys administered among the urban older adult populations. Survey schedules were carried out among randomly selected older adult residents aged 60 years and above (n =70) in and around the urban neighbourhoods in Jaipur city. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were conducted on the responses from the older adults. Findings indicate that accessibility barriers and safety concerns from traffic negatively impact the satisfaction and active ageing among elderly residents within the out-of-home neighbourhood environment. Creating age-friendly neighbourhood spaces and improving the accessibility linkages between the home and the outdoor built environment through architecture and design interventions can help improve user experiences and life satisfaction among the ageing population.