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3 publications listed under Older adults

The Social Environment and Cognitive Aging Over the Life Course: Laying Out Critical Concepts and Research Gaps

2026 / Loneliness, Older adults, Social capital

The social environment refers to our interpersonal relations, workplaces, and neighborhoods, towns, or cities in which we live. A growing literature indicates that social environments are related to cognitive aging and risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). Still, relatively little is known about how social‐environmental exposures affect cognitive function over the life course and into older ages. Addressing this limitation, our paper outlines key features of the social environment and recommends priority areas of research on the social environment and cognitive aging. We divide our discussion into three subdomains: social connections, residential context, and work context. We then identify important gaps in the conceptual and empirical literature before outlining avenues for future research to strengthen our understanding of how social‐environmental exposures over the life course link with cognitive function and AD/ADRD risk in late life. Highlights The social environment is linked to AD/ADRD risk, but key concepts and measures require clarity. Key features of the social environment linked to life course cognitive aging are discussed. Focal gaps in the conceptual and measurement literature are discussed.

Health Promotion in Public Parks: A Statewide Study in Texas Cities

2025 / Health and well-being, Older adults, Urban

City parks can promote health and health equity through many pathways and programs. In this study, we aimed to characterize health promotion efforts in city parks across the state of Texas. We surveyed the state’s 50 largest municipal park systems, asking about: park system metrics (acreage, budget, etc.), facilities, health promotion programs, health promotion partnerships, park equity initiatives, and challenges and barriers to health promotion efforts. Among the 30 cities (60%) that responded, health promotion programs and initiatives were common. These included fitness classes (in 100% of responding park systems), health education programming (66.7%), health fairs, health screenings, and walking/running groups (56.7% each). Programs serving special populations included those for the elderly (97%), for visitors using wheelchairs (86.7%), for low-income visitors (73.3%), and for racial and ethnic minorities (56.7%). Park systems reported a wide range of partnerships with health organizations—nonprofit organizations more commonly than hospitals or health departments. Few park systems engaged health professionals directly, in efforts such as Walk with a Doc. This study confirms that parks promote health through diverse initiatives and partnerships. It also highlights further opportunities for health promotion in parks, including partnerships with health organizations, engagement of health professionals, enhanced emphasis on mental health and nutrition, and outcome evaluation. These findings emphasize the importance of making health promotion a central part of park planning and operations, especially by building partnerships with health professionals and evaluating program outcomes. Park leaders and advocates can use these insights to secure resources and align park programs with broader community health and equity goals.

The Health and Wellbeing Effects of Forests, Trees and Green Space

2023 / Children, Green spaces, Health and well-being, Older adults

This chapter provides an overview of the empirical evidence regarding the association between green space in general, and forests and trees in particular, and health outcomes. The evidence is organised by life stage, and within the three life stages – early life (Section 3.2.), adulthood (Section 3.3.) and the elderly (Section 3.4.) – by type of health outcome. At the end of each of these three sections, the strength of the evidence for the presence (or absence) of a beneficial or detrimental association for a particular health outcome, as assessed by the authors, is summarised. Section 3.6. is devoted to modifiers of the aforementioned associations, such as gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. In the next section (3.7.), the evidence is placed in the context of global health challenges through elaborating on the potential of green space, and forests and trees in particular, in tackling major contributors to the global burden of disease. The final section concludes that the available evidence already strongly supports a wide range of beneficial associations including neurodevelopment in children, mental health and wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing and cardiometabolic health in adults, and mental health and wellbeing, cognitive ageing and longevity in the elderly. However, this evidence is predominantly based on studies on the health and wellbeing effects of green space, and the available evidence for such effects for forests and trees is still limited for most health outcomes. Moreover, these studies have been mainly conducted in high-income countries, with their generalisability to low- and middle-income countries not being self-evident. Furthermore, the causality of the observed associations is not always clear. Nevertheless, given that many of the involved health outcomes are among the major contributors of the global burden of disease, forests, trees and green spaces have a great potential for improving health and wellbeing of humans across all life stages in our rapidly urbanising world.