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. 2024 Jan;36(1-2):120-132.
doi: 10.1177/08982643231175367. Epub 2023 May 18.

The Relationship Between Physical Housing Characteristics, Housing Accessibility and Different Aspects of Health Among Community-Dwelling Older People: A Systematic Review

Christina Heller  1 , Maria Haak  2 , Steven M Schmidt  1 , Carlos Chiatti  3 , Lisa Ekstam  1 , Maria H Nilsson  1   4   5 , Björn Slaug  1
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The Relationship Between Physical Housing Characteristics, Housing Accessibility and Different Aspects of Health Among Community-Dwelling Older People: A Systematic Review

Christina Heller et al. J Aging Health. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: To synthesize the evidence on the relationships between physical housing characteristics or housing accessibility and different aspects of health among community-dwelling people 60 years and older. Methods: A systematic review of recent evidence with a narrative synthesis was conducted. Results: We included 15 studies and found three themes covering physical housing characteristics or housing accessibility that are associated with aspects of health among community-dwelling older adults: (1) interventions by home modifications targeting housing features both at entrances and indoors; (2) non-interventions targeting indoor features; (3) non-interventions targeting entrance features, that is, the presence of an elevator or stairs at the entrance. The overall quality of evidence across studies was assessed as very low. Discussion: The findings highlight the need for studies with a stronger research design and higher methodological quality that address the physical housing environment in relation to health among older adults to strengthen the body of evidence.

Keywords: ageing population; health; housing accessibility; physical housing characteristics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow Diagram (Page et al., 2021).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Risk of bias summary.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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