Recent policy rests on the assumption that it is better for older people to live independently within the community for as long as possible. A related assumption is that the local community forms a supportive context for vulnerable older people; the environment can compensate the limitations resulting from growing old. However, Lawton's ‘environmental docility hypothesis’, in which the interaction between characteristics of the environment and a person's competence is described, forms a reason to be more careful with this assumption. In a survey of 1,939 Dutch older adults carried out in 2002–2003 this hypothesis is explored for older people living in deprived and non-deprived neighbourhoods. The results of the analysis seem to be in line with Lawton's hypothesis. In non-deprived neighbourhoods, no differences in environmental stress are found between vulnerable and non-vulnerable older adults, while in deprived neighbourhoods vulnerable older adults experience significantly higher levels of environmental stress than non-vulnerable older adults. (Author/publisher)
Abstract