The Associations between Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Objective (GIS-Based) and Perceived Built Environments using a Latent Profile Approach in Seniors from Two US Regions

Background/Aim: Healthy aging increases seniors’ quality of life and reduces society’s healthcare costs, but requires support from both built and social environments. Prior studies often focused on a few built environment features without considering the complexity and multi-dimensionality of the built environment (BE). Using latent profile analysis (LPA), this study aims to examine the relations between objective (GIS-based) and perceived BE profiles and neighborhood social cohesion, and potential moderators (sociodemographic characteristics), that may exist between BE and neighborhood social cohesion in a regionally-derived cohort of seniors from two US locales. Methods: As part of the Senior Neighborhood Quality of Life Study (SNQLS), 693 participants aged 66-97 years (52.2% female, 30% racial minority) were sampled from Seattle-King County, WA and Baltimore, MD-Washington, DC regions in 2005-2008. Two previously published papers on SNQLS derived three objective and four perceived BE profiles. Particip...