Caractéristiques environnementales favorisant la participation sociale: une enquête auprès d'aînés québécois

We document and compare the environmental characteristics potentially associated with social participation of older Quebecers, according to the level of rurality. A survey was carried out among older Quebecers aged 65 and over recruited by different senior groups and through social media. The Questionnaire their potential for social participation, developed from a systematic literature review, was completed by respondents. According to the 515 older participants, 71.5 years old on average, environmental characteristics linked to social participation, as well as user-friendliness of the city and neighborhood, are more favorably perceived in metropolitan and urban areas than rural areas. However, access to public transportation and the welcoming and openness of local residents are more appreciated by rural respondents. These results support the presence of inequalities in social participation according to level of rurality and offer some leads for action.

Aging in Italy: Urban–rural differences

Urban and rural living environments play a key role in social gerontology. The aim of this paper is to examine urban-rural differences in Italy against some influencing key factors as well as to analyse whether these differences can be explained by the environmental setting or the age and, in some cases, the education of its elderly population. The study is based on data collected from the European funded MOBILATE 2000 project, which was carried out in Finland, The Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, and Italy. The Italian sample (600 subjects) was divided into rural and urban areas, and stratified according to gender and age. Older people living in rural areas were always significantly less well educated than those in urban areas. The average rural household size was larger than its urban counterpart. In general, Italian elderly people living in rural areas were less likely to live alone than their European peers. The social network was usually located close to the respondents' houses. Investigation of leisure activities and the use of new technologies revealed that elderly urban dwellers were not only more active than their rural peers, but also more technologically minded. A regression analysis (R(2)=0.551) of the number of new technologies used by subjects, yielded living area, age, years of education (the strongest explanatory variable), and number of leisure activities performed as predictors.