News

By Kim Barnhardt

An impressive progress report from Women’s Age Lab’s third year

Imagine retirement living not in an institution but an apartment or condominium in a community that you have called home for decades. The future of ageing in urban centres could look a whole lot different if Dr. Paula Rochon and her team have their way. A geriatrician who leads the Women’s Age Lab at Women’s College Hospital (WCH) and a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, Dr. Rochon is an expert in the field of ageing, especially for older women who are a majority but whose specific needs are often not considered. She and her team of researchers and clinicians, including geriatricians, gerontologists, epidemiologists and statistical analysts, work to improve the lives of older women by using science to transform care and practice, and to drive health system and social change.

Dr. Rochon and her team are particularly interested in how to integrate sex, gender and other determinants of health into research studies, a key role that the Sex and Gender+ Research Support Service at WCH and an OSSU Research Centre occupies in Ontario.

“Our work is designed to bring attention to older women who are often not part of conversations even though they are a major group,” says Dr. Rochon.

One of her team’s current research areas, co-led with Rachel Savage, PhD, is on housing, social connections and the role of naturally occurring retirement communities, where there is a large proportion of older adults who have lived there for decades and aged in place. Their research evaluates how to help people age in the best place, which is usually at home, and they hope it could change the way we approach retirement living.

“One topic is naturally occurring retirement communities where people often live in apartments and condos and may need support. With funding from CIHR and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), we’re looking at buildings with more older adults – at least 30%, and most tend to be women – and how we can bring in supports and services to help them stay there,” explains Dr. Rochon.

She notes there are lots of considerations, especially for women, and supports might be different depending on the building.

They are using an ambassador model where the researchers ask older adults what they’d like in a community such as book clubs, coffee chats, gardening, walking and more. Social and physical activities are central for health and social connections and can increase participation and improve nutrition. Working with the NORC Innovation Centre at the University Health Network (UHN) which is going into buildings to help set up support systems, as well as partners such as the Cities of Toronto and Barrie, Barrie Housing, the Toronto and Barrie Libraries and more, the Women’s Age Lab team is evaluating the approaches to determine what is optimal.

“It’s an important model to think about as way more people are living out there in the community than in retirement homes – these models of care are really interesting,” says Dr. Rochon.
In addition to vertical connections that residents of high-rise buildings can make, people in communities like Gabriola Island in British Columbia, where large numbers of older adults live in low-rise housing, create horizontal connections.

“It is a great opportunity to create a sense of community – exactly what we’re trying to do so that neighbours can make connections, support each other,” she says.

These older adult communities may enable expanded access and more efficient delivery of homecare and other supports as only a couple of support workers could look after many residents at one location. Unlike retirement residences, buildings and communities with a large percentage of older adults will still have residents with a range of ages which enables intergenerational connections.

Dr. Rochon cites The Netherlands as an example where density and architecture help mold and foster connections.

“Everything is so dense there: smaller scale houses, doors are closer with row houses, it’s more walkable, windows are closer so that creates opportunities for social connections,” she says. “And bikes are everywhere – young people, old people, all are on bikes so they are more physically active and it’s built in to the environment.”

Other factors like markets, housing located above accessible retail shops enhance physical activity and social connections for everyone but older adults in particular.

In addition to this exciting research on successfully ageing in place, the Women’s Age Lab team is continuing its work with OSSU to embed considerations of sex, gender and age in research studies in Ontario. The centre’s new research toolkit, What Gets Counted Counts, was led by Robin Mason, PhD and Joyce Li, MSc and is funded by OSSU, with support from Diabetes Action Canada, and aims to help researchers integrate sex and gender-based analysis plus (SGBA+) in health research studies.