Aging in the Right Place: How Our Senses Can Tell
Unsurprisingly, older people often disagree about what makes an ideal neighborhood when deciding where to live.
Some may prioritize the architectural design, size, physical condition, and cost of an area's dwellings. Still, others focus on its residents' characteristics and safety. And, if older people must cope with challenging mobility limitations, a neighborhood's suitability may depend on its closeness to shopping, food stores, clinics, rehab facilities, or a caring family member.
Yet experts cannot agree on what exactly constitutes a neighborhood. Studies use different criteria to distinguish its boundaries, geographic expanse (bigness or smallness), social composition, and land use features.
A neighborhood may consist of only a few houses or apartments near a person's home. However, confusingly, it may also refer to a larger area made up of numerous properties or dwellings of similar size or value.
Still, other researchers deem a neighborhood to exist if its residents attend the same school or church, belong to the same homeowner's association, or have the same demographics. A community's size also matters because people who live in urban and suburban neighbourhoods think quite differently about their neighbourhoods than rural homeowners.
As a result, these different definitions can make it difficult to interpret findings showing that a neighbourhood influences the quality of life of its older residents.
The Dwelling Vicinity
I believe that older people are influenced by the features and activities of less ambiguously defined areas than our neighborhoods. I refer to this place as the "dwelling vicinity."
The dwelling vicinity encompasses the area surrounding older people's houses or apartments that is within their sensory ranges, that is, what they can see, hear, and smell. It typically represents an area smaller than most neighborhood depictions, made up of only one or two blocks or short streets.
For those living in houses or townhomes, it specifically includes everything close by their dwellings' entrances—lawns, gardens, buildings, driveways, fences, vehicles, sidewalks, roads, natural landscapes, fields, industrial parks, farms, businesses, and the activities of people—both other residents and visitors.
For older people living in apartment or condominium multiunit buildings, the dwelling vicinity additionally encompasses their balconies, nearby apartment units, and common areas—hallways, elevators, lobby, laundry rooms, lounges, and recreational facilities—indoors and outside.
What constitutes the sensory experiences of a dwelling vicinity depends on the distinctive perceptions of its older occupants. Because these responses are so very personal, they offer a more relevant, sensitive, and impactful way to evaluate how older people's residential settings influence their physical and mental well-being.
Older People React Differently to their Immediate Outside Worlds
There is no one ideal dwelling vicinity. The same sights, sounds, and smells that some older people find appealing, others will find repulsive.
Some older people get turned on when they feel connected with the beauty of nature. They thrive on outside environments that permeate their sensory organs with the sights, sounds, and smells of trees, flowers, plants, insects, birds, lakes, or ponds. They relish quiet and visually calm surroundings without people, activities, and artificial lighting.
But others feel alive and stimulated when aroused by the cacophony of a city's myriad of sights, smells, and sounds. For these residents, high-rise buildings, stores, bright lamps, asphalt roadways, and even rundown buildings delight their senses. They even accept what others might consider urban life's offensive smells, eyesores, and noises—its cars, buses, and delivery trucks.
Challenges to Living in an Ideal Dwelling Vicinity
In practice, identifying the ideal dwelling vicinity is not straightforward because older people's sensory experiences require more nuanced distinctions. For example:
A retired couple moved to a middle-class suburban neighborhood in Sarasota, Florida. Their dwelling vicinity seemed highly favorable with its well-maintained nearby houses, visually inviting walking and bicycling trails, and quiet streets. However, their homeowner's association redesigned a common recreational area across from their house. What were once tennis courts became pickleball courts. The pop-pop noise from rackets hitting balls was unbearable. Unable to stand this incessant clamor, the anxious couple soon moved out.
Jane recently occupied an affordable high-rise apartment for lower-income seniors. It was an architecturally attractive and quiet building with a sweet-smelling communal garden. Yet, after a short stay as a tenant, she decided to move out. An otherwise pleasant neighbor in the adjacent apartment made her life miserable. She was a chain cigarette smoker, and a continual stench of smoke permeated a common wall and aggravated her already challenged respiratory condition.
In a bustling area close to the urban center, a single man in his 70s moved into a high-rise condominium primarily occupied by younger singles. Everyday necessities—a grocery store, restaurant, dry cleaners, and coffee shop—were all within eyeshot. Public transit was nearby. He liked the vitality of the building's occupants and even tolerated the party noise from nearby apartments. However, the condo building was in a busy commercial area, and he found the traffic noise and the pollution from ever-present car and bus emissions unbearable. He also became depressed because of the homeless people camping nearby. He put his unit up for sale.
Residents in a high-end continuing care retirement community (CCRC or life-care) were delighted with their physical amenities, care options, and friendly and responsive staff. A big draw was the nearby university—across the street—offering free lectures and access to a fitness center. However, the CCRC-university connection had a downside. Many residents were upset by the loud music from a nearby nightclub, a common feature on college campuses. They eventually found relief because of the noise abatement efforts of the club owners, but only after aggressive protests.
An older woman considered moving to an assisted living facility because she needed help taking care of herself. A small development with a home-like appearance was high on her list of possibilities. But two different visits turned her off. She could not ignore the place's disturbing odors—some combination of cleaning products, urine smells, and body odor. Despite its otherwise favorable qualities, she had to look elsewhere for assistance.
Attending to Sensory Experiences Key to Aging in the Right Place
The dwelling vicinity of a house or apartment floods older people's senses with a reservoir of sights, sounds, and smells. How agreeable or pleasant are these perceptions? Will their sensory responses always be in sync—but rather comprise an inconsistent blend of positive and negative experiences? What tradeoffs are they willing to make? How do what they see, hear, and smell influence their residential decisions—to stay put or move elsewhere?
The answers to these questions help us to know whether older people are, in fact, aging in the right places.
Interested in more? Read Dr. Golant's other articles on this topic;
About the Author
Stephen M. Golant, Ph.D., is a leading national speaker, author, and researcher on the housing, mobility, transportation, and long-term care needs of older adult populations. He is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, a Fulbright Senior Scholar award recipient, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida. Golant’s latest book is Aging in The Right Place, published by Health Professions Press. Contact him at [email protected]
