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AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print May 30, 2006
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July 2006, Vol 96, No. 7 | American Journal of Public Health 1164-1170
© 2006 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.068262

COMMUNITY MATTERS IN HEALTHY AGING

Healthy Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities: A Low-Cost Approach to Facilitating Healthy Aging

Paul J. Masotti, PhD, MSHSA, Robert Fick, BA, BEd, Ana Johnson-Masotti, PhD, MA and Stuart MacLeod, PhD, MD

Paul J. Masotti and Ana Johnson-Masotti are with Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Robert Fick is with the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Stuart MacLeod is with the Child & Family Research Institute, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Paul J. Masotti, PhD, MSHSA, Dept of Community Health and Epidemiology, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Queen’s University, Abramsky Hall, 3rd Fl, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6 (e-mail: masottip{at}post.queensu.ca).

Naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) are broadly defined as communities where individuals either remain or move when they retire. Using the determinants of health model as a base, we hypothesize that some environmental determinants have a different impact on people at different ages.

Health benefits to living within NORCs have been observed and likely vary depending upon where the specific NORC exists on the NORC to healthy-NORC spectrum. Some NORC environments are healthier than others for seniors, because the NORC environment has characteristics associated with better health for seniors. Health benefits within healthy NORCs are higher where physical and social environments facilitate greater activity and promote feelings of well-being.

Compared to the provision of additional medical or social services, healthy NORCs are a low-cost community-level approach to facilitating healthy aging. Municipal governments should pursue policies that stimulate and support the development of healthy NORCs.




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