The Nordic AHA Communities - Arctic Healthy Aging communities: Safe and inclusive outdoor environment and public spaces

The purpose of this Nordic Council of Ministers project is to create an expert network and investigate how older people perceive their lived urban and rural mobility space and the impact of environmental conditions in Arctic wintertime. The project is led by the University of Oulu in Finland. Project partners include the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and the University of Iceland. Specifically, the project investigates 1) how older people describe their outdoor surroundings for their activities and participation; 2) how older people describe their mobility and outdoor safety; and 3) how older people in the Arctic experience barriers and enablers for outdoor use. The methodology is an exploratory mixed-method design, and there are two parts, a questionnaire and focus group interviews, in Finland, Iceland and Sweden. It develops the same tailored questionnaire, which is translated to Finnish, Icelandic and Swedish, and focused on mobility space and the impact of outdoor environmental conditions. Participants are 70 years or older and include at least 800 people (questionnaire). The second part of the study is focus group interviews, based on the results of the questionnaire. Interviews will give more data and old people’s opinions to be heard. The results will be disseminated locally and internationally to relevant policymakers, stakeholders, NGOs, the public and researchers. The project duration is 36 months, started in August 2023.

University of Oulu staff involved in the project:

Lead of the project

Prof. Arja Rautio, arja.rautio (at) oulu.fi
Coordinator and Post doctoral researcher in the project

Dr. Anastasia Emelyanova, anastasia.emelyanova (at) oulu.fi

Research group: Arctic Health