Browsing by Author "Laatikainen, Tiina E."

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Capturing exposure in environmental health research : Challenges and opportunities of different activity space models
(2018-07-28) Laatikainen, Tiina E.; Hasanzadeh, Kamyar; Kyttä, Marketta
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Background: The built environment health promotion has attracted notable attention across a wide spectrum of health-related research over the past decade. However, the results about the contextual effects on health and PA are highly heterogeneous. The discrepancies between the results can potentially be partly explained by the diverse use of different spatial units of analysis in assessing individuals' exposure to various environment characteristics. This study investigated whether different residential and activity space units of analysis yield distinct results regarding the association between the built environment and health. In addition, this study examines the challenges and opportunities of the different spatial units of analysis for environmental health-related research. Methods: Two common residential units of analysis and two novel activity space models were used to examine older adults' wellbeing in relation to the built environment features in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. An administrative unit, 500 m residential buffer, home range model and individualized residential exposure model were used to assess the associations between the built environment and wellbeing of respondent's (n = 844). Results: All four different spatial units of analysis yield distinct results regarding the associations between the built environment characteristics and wellbeing. A positive association between green space and health was found only when exposure was assessed with individualized residential exposure model. Walkability index and the length of pedestrian and bicycle roads were found to positively correlate with perceived wellbeing measures only with a home range model. Additionally, all units of analysis differed from each other in terms of size, shape, and how they capture different contextual measures. Conclusions: The results show that different spatial units of analysis result in considerably different measurements of built environment. In turn, the differences derived from the use of different spatial units seem to considerably affect the associations between environment characteristics and wellbeing measures. Although it is not easy to argue about the correctness of these measurements, what is evident is that they can reveal different wellbeing outcomes. While some methods are especially usable to determine the availability of environmental opportunities that promote active travel and the related health outcomes, others can provide us with insight into the mechanisms how the actual exposure to green structure can enhance wellbeing.
Environmental, individual and personal goal influences on older adults’ walking in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area
(2019-01) Laatikainen, Tiina E.; Haybatollahi, Mohammad; Kyttä, Marketta
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Physical activity is a fundamental factor in healthy ageing, and the built environment has been linked to individual health outcomes. Understanding the linkages between older adult’s walking and the built environment are key to designing supportive environments for active ageing. However, the variety of different spatial scales of human mobility has been largely overlooked in the environmental health research. This study used an online participatory mapping method and a novel modelling of individual activity spaces to study the associations between both the environmental and the individual features and older adults’ walking in the environments where older adult’s actually move around. Study participants (n = 844) aged 55+ who live in Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland reported their everyday errand points on a map and indicated which transport mode they used and how frequently they accessed the places. Respondents walking trips were drawn from the data and the direct and indirect effects of the personal, psychological as well as environmental features on older adults walking were examined. Respondents marked on average, six everyday errand points and walked for transport an average of 20 km per month. Residential density and the density of walkways, public transit stops, intersections and recreational sports places were significantly and positively associated with older adult’s walking for transport. Transit stop density was found having the largest direct effect to older adults walking. Built environment had an independent effect on older adults walking regardless of individual demographic or psychological features. Education and personal goals related to physical activities had a direct positive, and income a direct negative, effect on walking. Gender and perceived health had an indirect effect on walking, which was realized through individuals’ physical activity goals.
Environments for Healthy and Active Ageing
(2019) Laatikainen, Tiina E.
School of Engineering | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
Our populations are ageing at fast and at the same time our globe is confronting significant health challenges including increases in physical inactivity, obesity, and other non-communicable diseases. Maintaining mobility and physical activity are fundamental factors in healthy ageing, and the physical environment has been linked to various individual health outcomes. Understanding what kinds of environments can support older adults' everyday mobility can help researchers, planners and decision makers find ways to facilitate and motivate older adults to move outdoors and in planning healthy communities. Ecological models propose that multiple levels of factors influence health behavior, often including the physical, sociocultural, and policy environments as well as individuals' personal psychological and sociodemographic backgrounds. In this thesis, address the gap in health pro-motion research, which have had methodological challenges in capturing the complex interactions of individual and physical environmental characteristics in certain spatial settings. Thus, the pos-sibilities and challenges of online participatory mapping method in health promotion research and among older adults are studied. I also study different physical environmental contexts and how they are associated with the health and physical activity of older adults, namely adults aged 55 to 75, in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. My findings show that participatory mapping methods are well suited for health promotion research and offer ways to overcome the challenges previous studies have had in capturing the spatiality of human health behavior. The online participatory mapping method was found suitable for older adults but there are some cognitive, sensory, and motor challenges that need to be con-sidered. Additionally, the findings show that the built environment is direclty linked to older adults' walking, and that green and blue spaces close to home describe older adults' perceptions of a quality environment, and thus could motivate older adults getting outdoors. Moreover, the findings show that the physical environment is associated with the perceived health of older adults, but the way the environment is studied and measured should be carefully considered. I conclude that the physical environment can play a core role in supporting older adults' health behavior despite their personal interests and background. Furthermore, I present a revised ecological model of physical activity where the context is given its place. In the future, studies in the field of health promotion should investigate simultaneously the per-sonal, sociocultural, and psychological as well as the physical and policy environment features with spatially bounded context-specific methods. Emphasis should be given to longitudinal studies to more comprehensively examine causal relations. Moreover, I would recommend future research to place focus not only on what is inside one's head but more on what one's head is inside of.