@article{ref1,
title="Neighborhood environment and mental well-being among Chinese older adults: the mediating role of social capital",
journal="Innovation in aging",
year="2022",
author="Lu, Shiyu and Guo, Yingqi and Chui, Cheryl and Liu, Yuqi and Chan, On Fung and Chan, Samuel W. and Lum, Terry Y. S.",
volume="6",
number="7",
pages="igac070-igac070",
abstract="BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Neighborhood environments are increasingly recognized as associated with mental well-being among older adults. However, their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated mediating effects of cognitive and structural social capital (SC) in relationships between neighborhood environments and mental well-being among older adults.   RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1,277 community-dwellers aged 60 years and older in Hong Kong in 2021. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale assessed mental well-being. Perceived age-friendly environment was assessed. <br><br>OBJECTIVE neighborhood environment was measured by the number of neighborhood facilities (e.g., transportation, community centers, leisure facilities) within 200-m and 500-m buffer areas from respondents' residences. Structural equational modeling was used. <br><br>RESULTS: Perceived age-friendly environment regarding community and health support had a protective role on mental well-being. More community centers were directly associated with better affective-emotional well-being, while more passive leisure facilities directly lowered psychological-functioning well-being. Cognitive SC outweighed structural SC in mediating relationships of neighborhood environment on mental well-being. <br><br>DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Our findings advance the ecological model of aging by providing evidence for cognitive and structural SC as mediators to explain the relationship between neighborhood environment and mental well-being. Policy implications for optimizing mental well-being in aging societies are discussed.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2399-5300",
doi="10.1093/geroni/igac070",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac070"
}