Environmental mobility barriers and walking for errands among older people who live alone vs. with others

BMC Public Health

Table 3 **Odds ratios* for low and moderate amount of walking for errands with perceived environmental mobility barriers among those living alone and living with others**

	Living alone		Living with others
	LOWER	MODWER	LOWER	MODWER
	(n = 29)	(n = 248)	(n = 67)	(n = 133)
Environmental mobility barrier	OR (95% Cl)	OR (95% Cl)	OR (95% Cl)	OR (95% Cl)
Traffic	1.95 (0.76-5.01)	1.32 (0.72-2.40)	0.64 (0.25-1.64)	1.25 (0.59-2.62)
Terrain	1.83 (0.78-4.31)	1.38 (0.83-2.29)	0.75 (0.34-1.66)	1.12 (0.58-2.17)
Distances	7.77 (2.94-20.56)	1.93 (0.96-3.91)	7.35 (2.00-26.99)	2.86 (0.80-10.22)
Entrance	8.76 (3.37-22.80)	2.13 (1.09-4.20)	0.59 (0.22-1.57)	0.75 (0.34-1.64)

OR Odds Ratio, CI Confidence Interval.
LOWER Low amount of walking for errands, MODWER Moderate amount of walking for errands, HIGWER High amount of walking for errands.
* Adjusted for age and gender from multinominal logistic regression: LOWER and MODWER each compared to HIGWER. Models are computed separately for those living alone and those living with others.
Environmental mobility barriers studied were Traffic (noisy traffic and dangerous crossroads), Terrain (hilly terrain and poor street condition), Distances (long distance to services and lack of resting places), and Entrance (outdoor stairs present, indoor stairs present, no elevator, heavy doors, slippery floor and inadequate lighting). LOWER: ≤ 1.5 km/week or at most once a week; HIGWER: ≥ 8.5 km/week (highest quartile); MODWER: those who did not fall into LOWER or HIGWER categories.

ISSN: 1471-2458