Built environment and walking among the elderly: a systematic review

Population ageing is a global demographic trend. In this context, encouraging walking through the practice of regular physical activity is of utmost importance to promote healthy ageing of the population. Thus, built environment (BE) interventions are one of the key elements for the planning of more walkable cities and communities for the elderly, ensuring them more independence to reach priority destinations in order to maintain a better quality of life. This paper presents a systematic review of 41 studies published between 2000 and 2020 that assessed the influence of the BE on walking among the elderly, considering different trip purposes and geographic contexts as well as relationships between objective and subjective BE measures. The results found allowed to identify nine BE variables related to walking for different trip purposes. The non-linear effects of some of those variables are dependent on the geographic context. However, only five articles were concerned to investigate relationships between objective BE measures and their perception by the elderly. It is important to notice the scarce number of studies from developing countries, in which a better understanding of the walking contexts depends on the inclusion of the elderly for the assessment of objective and subjective BE measures.