Out-of-home activities motivating older adults’ participation in the community

Life space-the geographical extent of people's movement within their communities-is closely linked to the physical and cognitive functions of older adults. It serves as a potential marker for mobility and health among aging populations, corresponding to the ability to age in place. Central to maintaining and expanding older adults' life spaces are their out-of-home travel and activities. In a study with 1118 community-dwelling older adults in Singapore, participants' travel patterns were tracked over a period of two weeks to identify how and when they travel, where they travel to, and why they travel (or what they do at out-of-home locations). Data was collected via a mobile application with precise location tracking and an accompanying log for participant input. This paper tests the feasibility and comprehensiveness of a list of activities that older adults engage in when they visit places outside their homes, using it to characterize travel motivations amongst older persons. Furthermore, it identifies the specific activities that are associated with larger life spaces, while controlling for sociodemographic differences in a hierarchical linear regression model. The findings suggest that the proposed list adequately represents older adults' motivations for travel and activities within the community, making it suitable for applications in future research and analyses. Crucially, the results indicate that although trips to meet day-to-day needs were performed more frequently, trips for employment and social activities were the key drivers of larger life spaces or greater extents of travel.