THE VARIETY OF THE GOLDEN AGERS: IDENTIFYING PROFILES OF OLDER PEOPLE FOR MOBILITY RESEARCH

摘要

The increasing share of older people in the European population causes challenges for the future transportationsystem. Older people have specific, heterogeneous and varying requirements, which have to be consideredenhancing their mobility options. Due to the fact, that “the typical elderly” does not exist, this work is focusingon the development of distinguishable and internally cohesive types of the older people for enabling thedevelopment of more customized solutions in mobility research. In order to do so different information sourcesand analysis methods (quantitative statistical analysis of a pan-European databases, qualitative analysis ofliterature, in-depth interviews of experts, workshops) have been applied in a multi-stage approach. In total, thefollowing five profiles have been identified which differ in demographics, physical and mental state of health,life satisfaction, activities and social networks, mobility behavior, technology usage as well as in copingstrategies after incisive live changing events: Fit as a Fiddle including the youngest and active elderly; Hole inthe Heart describing older people with severe limitations in younger ages; Happily Connected comprisingsocially active elderly with high life satisfaction; Oldie but a Goodie including the quite old but independent andmobile; the Care-Full containing those who need a lot of care and are not able to manage their daily lives ontheir own. The profiles provide the basis for identifying current and future transport needs of older people inconsideration of the heterogeneity in this population.