The Variety of the Golden Agers: Identifying Profiles of Older People for Mobility Research

The increasing share of older people in the European population causes challenges for the future transportation system. Older people have specific, heterogeneous and varying requirements, which have to be considered enhancing their mobility options. Due to the fact, that “the typical elderly” does not exist, this work is focusing on the development of distinguishable and internally cohesive types of the older people for enabling the development of more customized solutions in mobility research. In order to do so different information sources and analysis methods (quantitative statistical analysis of a pan-European databases, qualitative analysis of literature, in-depth interviews of experts, workshops) have been applied in a multi-stage approach. In total, the following five profiles have been identified which differ in demographics, physical and mental state of health, life satisfaction, activities and social networks, mobility behavior, technology usage as well as in coping strategies after incisive live changing events: Fit as a Fiddle including the youngest and active elderly; Hole in the Heart describing older people with severe limitations in younger ages; Happily Connected comprising socially active elderly with high life satisfaction; Oldie but a Goodie including the quite old but independent and mobile; the Care-Full containing those who need a lot of care and are not able to manage their daily lives on their own. The profiles provide the basis for identifying current and future transport needs of older people in consideration of the heterogeneity in this population.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB60 Safe Mobility of Older Persons.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Mandl, Bettina
  • Millonig, Alexandra
  • Friedl, Veronika
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
• Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 11p
• Monograph Title: TRB 92nd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged; Demographics; Health; Interviewing; Literature reviews; Mobility; Psychological adaptation; Research; Social factors; Statistical analysis
• Uncontrolled Terms: Profiles; User needs; Well being
• Geographic Terms: Europe
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Society; Transportation (General); I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01472728
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 13-3850
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 19 2013 8:53AM