Variation in Living Environments Among Community-Dwelling Elders

Many studies examine the movement of elderly individuals across living arrangement and institutional care settings, but the rapidly evolving structure of elderly living environments makes traditional measurement paradigms less representative. We investigate the diverse health-related environmental characteristics of noninstitutional elderly living environments in 1993 and their association with health. We use the 1993 wave of the Asset and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old (AHEAD) survey, which includes both physical and social characteristics of the living environment for over 7,000 older Americans. Grade of membership (GoM) models are used to summarize variation in social and physical environment characteristics, and examine differences between males and females. We also estimate the cross-sectional association between living environment and several measures of physical and mental health status. Results illustrate extensive within and between-sex heterogeneity in elderly living environments using five idealized environment types, as well as significant associations with physical and mental health status measures. As older individuals stay in the community for longer periods of time, traditional me need to be replaced by definitions of noninstitutional environments that meaningfully represent the social and physical challenges faced by this rapidly growing segment of our population.