We’ve all heard the forecast – the population is aging.  According to Statistics Canada, by 2031 people over the age of 65 will make up 23% of the population in British Columbia. Prolonging active living and providing opportunities for social connections for the aging demographic has been highlighted as an essential strategy for enhancing independence, quality of life and overall health while reducing the dependency on the health care system. 

The Walk the Talk Team, based at Centre for Hip Health and Mobility (CHHM), was awarded a prestigious six year, $1.5M emerging team grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research to evaluate how the physical and social environment is associated with older adult mobility – the physical capacity to walk or move within communities.  Mobility is the focus as it has obvious impact on health, social inclusion and quality of life outcomes in older adults.  Ultimately, the team will uncover strategies to mitigate the barriers to mobility and active living, as influenced by the physical and social environment.

“The typical pedestrian cross light begins to flash ’the hand’ after just seven seconds” says Dr. Heather McKay, the nominated principle investigator of the team, Director of CHHM and Professor in the Departments of Family Practice and Orthopaedics. “If you are an older adult with a cane, a shopping bag and a vision impediment – the intersection becomes the enemy as you know you may not get across in time. These seemingly simple things greatly impact the safety and confidence of older adults, and ultimate influences their willingness to get out in and interact with, their community.”

The Walk the Talk Team has developed close partnerships with the City of Vancouver, City of Surrey, BC Housing, the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House and the West End Seniors’ Network, among others to ensure that the community can both inform the team’s research projects from the outset and also be in a position to readily move findings into action.  “It is all about team work,” says Dr. Joanie Sims-Gould, the team’s lead investigator on the qualitative research and knowledge translation components. “To succeed we must engage diverse groups across multiple sectors and address this complex problem collaboratively – there are many parts to the puzzle and our team sees an opportunity to bring key community and policy stakeholders together to evoke evidence based change.”

On November 1^st, the WTT team hosted their 2^nd Annual Research and Community Partnership Symposium entitled “If we build it, will they walk?” at the Roundhouse Community Centre in downtown Vancouver. It was an interactive day of presentations and dialogue where civic planners, engineers, elected officials, provincial government and community organization representatives, researchers and seniors themselves shared perspectives and examined successful initiatives that positively impact the mobility and health of older adults. Over one hundred people participated.

“It is through collaboration and integration across sectors and disciplines, at all levels, that we begin to adequately address the mobility needs of aging Canadians and ensure that the social and built environments support healthy, independent living,” says Dr. Heather McKay.  “This symposium exemplifies our commitment to understanding the multi-system, multi-level influences on older adult mobility, health and independence.”

The focus of the symposium resonated with many in the community.  The media caught wind of the event, including The Vancouver Sun, the UBC Faculty of Medicine as well as the Canadian Associated Press, which published an article in dozen or so places across Canada including CTV News, Huffington Post,  Winnipeg Free Press and iVue Style Magazine, among others. 

As the Walk the Talk team heads into 2012, they will immersed in research and data collection as they set out into the community to undertake their core project, a cross-sectional study that will evaluate the influence of the physical environment on the mobility and quality of life older adults who are of a lower socioeconomic condition. Four hundred older adult recipients of BC Housing support (Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters, SAFER) will be recruited and will complete a number of measurements – from objective measures of mobility and health, such as GPS, accelerometry and anthropometrics to questionnaires on cognitive function, perceptions of neighbourhood walkability, health and quality of life. 

Stay tuned for more community engagement efforts by the Walk the Talk team.

Photo credit: Callista Haggis