Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

The Canadian population is aging, and among older adults, limited mobility predicts death and is a risk factor for disability, social exclusion and poor quality of life. Mobility is the physical ability of humans to work or move themselves within their communities. As mobility promotes independence of older adults, is also essential to understand how the built environment (BE) influences their health, mobility and wellbeing. The built environment is the combination of individual elements of towns and cities where people work, live and play (e.g. land use, density and connectivity on the macro-scale and sidewalks, benches and lighting on the micro-scale). Older Canadians are more ethnically diverse than the general population, and immigrants comprise 28% of the seniors population. Recent international literature suggests that some foreign-born older adults are at a higher risk for limited mobility. My study seeks to: 1) describe how foreign-born status and the BE influence the mobility of urban dwelling older adults and, 2) develop, implement and evaluate a program (e.g. walking or bus buddy group) that supports the mobility of foreign-born older adults, in partnership with South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. My study consists of 3 parts: i) analysis of data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), ii) interviews with foreign-born older adults and iii) an evaluation of a community-based mobility intervention. Participants will be selected from neighbourhoods that either support or inhibit mobility.