International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Article A Space-Time Analysis of Rural Older People’s Outdoor Mobility and Its Impact on Self-Rated Health: Evidence from a Taiwanese Rural Village Tzuyuan Stessa Chao 1 , Xiaoqin Jiang 1,2,*, Yi Sun 3 and Jheng-Ze Yu 1 1 Department of Urban Planning, College of Planning and Design, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan;
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[email protected] (J.-Z.Y.) 2 School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China 3 Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong;
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[email protected] Abstract: With the aggravation of rural aging, the well-being and self-rated health level of older people in rural communities are significantly lower than those in urban communities. Past studies hold that mobility is essential to the quality of life of the elderly, and well-being depends on their own adaptation strategies in the built environment. Therefore, this study combines three key factors related to active aging: environment, health and mobility, and assumes that the elderly with good health status will have environmental proactivity and a wider range of daily mobility in a poor rural built environment. This study attempts to track daily mobility by using a space–time path method in time geography and then to explore the relationship between outdoor mobility and older people’s self-rated health. A 1-week mobility path survey for 20 senior citizens of Xishi Village, a typical Citation: Chao, T.S.; Jiang, X.; Sun, Y.; rural village in Taiwan, was conducted by wearing a GPS sports watch.