Health: The Design, Planning and Politics of How
and Where We Live
• Paper / Proposal Title:
How built environment makes the elderly feel? The relationship between elderly people with depression and built environment factors
• Format:
Presentation in-person
• Author(s) Name:
Hung-Chun Lin, Tzu-Yuan Chao
• University or Company Affiliation:
National Cheng Kung University
• Abstract (300 words):
Recent studies of ageing trend, mostly conducted in the Western countries, have proved that even though the built environment may not necessarily plays the decisive role in affecting mental health, it can have positive impacts on individual mental health by promoting social linkages and social networks among older adults. However, little attention has been paid to Asian cities with relative high density and mix-use urban contexts regarding how the built environment factors relate to depression in elderly people. In Taiwan, statistics showed that the prevalence of depressive disorder in older adults was 35.2%; moreover, with regard to elder people who rely on long-term care facilities, the rate for depressive symptoms was over 50%. Therefore, more empirical studies are needed to explore the possible impacts of urban characteristics on older residents’ mental condition.
This paper intends to focus on Tainan city, the fourth biggest metropolis in Taiwan. We first analyse data from National Health Insurance Research Database to pinpoint the empirical study area where resides most patients who aged over 65, with depressive disorders. Secondly, we explore the relationship between specific attributes of the built environment and elderly individuals who suffer from depression, under different socio- cultural and networking circumstances. The methodology includes database analysis and questionnaire which contains Geriatric Depression Scale, a 30-questions self-report assessment of depressive disorder. The subsequent results will be further proceeded to a correlation analysis. In addition, this paper also aims to propose a set of local evaluative indicators of the built environment for future studies regarding the issue. With an interdisciplinary topic, findings of this paper can provide empirical evidence for planners to rethink how the built environment makes the elderly feel, as well as be aimed at making suggestions for amending the procedures of drawing up city plans from a different point of view.
• Author(s) Biography (200 words each):
Hung-Chun Lin, Graduate Student, Department of Urban Planning, National Cheng Kung University
Tzu-Yuan Chao, is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Urban Planning and research fellow of Healthy City Research Center at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. Her research mainly focus on demographic changes and urban planning system in terms of planning/ design practices and planning regulatory system. She was the first project leader of the National Age-Friendly Cities Program in Taiwan in 2010-2011 and has been highly involved in Age-friendly Cities research in Taiwan since 2010.
She has been a visiting scholar at the University of West of England WHO Collaborating Centre in 2012. She also has published a number of journal articles and book chapters (Time, Space, Places; The Routledge Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-being) on the age-friendly cities and communities from planning and design perspectives. She holds a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and a Doctorate of Urban Planning from the University of Nottingham (UK）.
• Email contact details:
mcpiggylin@gmail.com tychao@mail.ncku.edu.tw
• How did you hear about the conference:
Email from known colleague / email from other party or colleague / Jisc email / HNET / Conference Alerts / Other [Underline in bold]
Please send this fully completed document as an attachment.
The document must be in Microsoft Word.
Subject line for emails: Abstract Submission UWE
File name for attachment: Name_Surname_Summary Title_ Abstract UWE Example file name: Charlie_Smith_Yet Another Apartment Block_Abstract UWE
Submit forms to: admin@architecturemps.com
