TY - JOUR
T1 - Employing Participatory Citizen Science Methods to Promote Age-Friendly Environments Worldwide
AU - on behalf of the Our Voice Global Citizen Science Research Network
AU - King, Abby C.
AU - King, Diane K.
AU - Banchoff, Ann
AU - Solomonov, Smadar
AU - Natan, Ofir Ben
AU - Hua, Jenna
AU - Gardiner, Paul
AU - Rosas, Lisa Goldman
AU - Espinosa, Patricia Rodriguez
AU - Winter, Sandra J.
AU - Sheats, Jylana
AU - Salvo, Deborah
AU - Aguilar-Farias, Nicolas
AU - Stathi, Afroditi
AU - Hino, Adriano Akira
AU - Porter, Michelle M.
PY - 2020/3/1
Y1 - 2020/3/1
N2 - The trajectory of aging is profoundly impacted by the physical and social environmental contexts in which we live. While “top–down” policy activities can have potentially wide impacts on such contexts, they often take time, resources, and political will, and therefore can be less accessible to underserved communities. This article describes a “bottom–up”, resident-engaged method to advance local environmental and policy change, called Our Voice, that can complement policy-level strategies for improving the health, function, and well-being of older adults. Using the World Health Organization’s age-friendly cities global strategy, we describe the Our Voice citizen science program of research that has specifically targeted older adults as environmental change agents to improve their own health and well-being as well as that of their communities. Results from 14 Our Voice studies that have occurred across five continents demonstrate that older adults can learn to use mobile technology to systematically capture and collectively analyze their own data. They can then successfully build consensus around high-priority issues that can be realistically changed and work effectively with local stakeholders to enact meaningful environmental and policy changes that can help to promote healthy aging. The article ends with recommended next steps for growing the resident-engaged citizen science field to advance the health and welfare of all older adults.
AB - The trajectory of aging is profoundly impacted by the physical and social environmental contexts in which we live. While “top–down” policy activities can have potentially wide impacts on such contexts, they often take time, resources, and political will, and therefore can be less accessible to underserved communities. This article describes a “bottom–up”, resident-engaged method to advance local environmental and policy change, called Our Voice, that can complement policy-level strategies for improving the health, function, and well-being of older adults. Using the World Health Organization’s age-friendly cities global strategy, we describe the Our Voice citizen science program of research that has specifically targeted older adults as environmental change agents to improve their own health and well-being as well as that of their communities. Results from 14 Our Voice studies that have occurred across five continents demonstrate that older adults can learn to use mobile technology to systematically capture and collectively analyze their own data. They can then successfully build consensus around high-priority issues that can be realistically changed and work effectively with local stakeholders to enact meaningful environmental and policy changes that can help to promote healthy aging. The article ends with recommended next steps for growing the resident-engaged citizen science field to advance the health and welfare of all older adults.
KW - Age-friendly environments
KW - Aging
KW - Built environment
KW - Citizen science
KW - Digital health
KW - Health equity
KW - Health promotion
KW - Older adults
KW - Participatory research
KW - WHO
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85080886140&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph17051541
DO - 10.3390/ijerph17051541
M3 - Article
C2 - 32121001
AN - SCOPUS:85080886140
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 17
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 5
M1 - 1541
ER -