Article

Urban Studies
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Ó Urban Studies Journal Limited 2017
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environments on quality of life of DOI: 10.1177/0042098017702827
journals.sagepub.com/home/usj
elderly people: Evidence from
Nanjing, China

Jianxi Feng
Nanjing University, China

Shuangshuang Tang
Nanjing University, China

Xiaowei Chuai
Nanjing University, China

Abstract
The connections between the built environment and quality of life are major concerns in the
fields of geography and urban planning. Given that some developing countries, such as China, have
a rapidly aging society, elderly people have become a social group that attracts growing interest
among scholars and policy makers. However, the relationship between neighbourhood environ-
ments and the quality of life of the elderly has scarcely been referenced in previous literature.
Based on a recent survey in Nanjing, China, this article investigates such connections through
structural equations models. It notes that population density exerts an insignificant influence on
the life satisfaction of the elderly, whereas built year has the largest impact, indicating the impor-
tance of interior environment to subjective wellbeing for the elderly in China. The other built
environment factors (informal space and danwei) that have Chinese features are negatively related
to the quality of life of older people. Among life domains, the effects of health conditions, residen-
tial environments and transportation are stronger than those of social interaction, meaning that
the elderly in China place greater emphasis on their basic needs than on higher life needs. This
article has some policy implications for policy makers, including on urban form, informal spaces
and style of residential communities. Relevant policies need to be carried out to promote the life
satisfaction of elderly people in urban China.

Keywords
built environment, China, elderly people, Nanjing, quality of life

Corresponding author:
Received September 2016; accepted February 2017
Shuangshuang Tang, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Road,
Nanjing, 210046, China.
Email: sstang@nju.edu.cn
2 Urban Studies

Introduction impact of retirement, changes in lifestyle and

bodily aging on time use and activity partici-
Over the last few decades, subjective wellbeing
pation. Because of worsening physical condi-
has been widely studied in economics, psy-
tions and related driving cessation, the
chology and sociology (Baumol and Oates,
elderly generally rely more on non-motorised
1979; Bowling, 1991; Kahn and Juster, 2002).
transportation and local facilities than their
Recently, the topic has drawn increasing
younger cohorts (Rosenbloom, 2001). In
attention from scholars in the fields of geogra-
addition, because most of the elderly are no
phy and urban planning because improving
longer employed, non-work travel, especially
the quality of life of residents is the ultimate
for recreational purposes, accounts for the
goal of urban planning. The connections
majority of their total travel. These issues
between the built environment and quality of
make the needs and related perceptions of
life (QOL) are commonly the primary con-
the elderly quite different from those of the
cerns of urban planners, architects and policy
general population.
makers (Cao, 2016). In the literature, a por-
Third, despite the substantial body of
tion of studies have explored this type of rela-
research on the determinants of subjective
tionship, including the connections between
wellbeing among the elderly around the
environmental amenities (e.g. public green-
world, relatively less attention has been paid
space, urban greenway trails, neighbourhood
to the elderly in China, especially in regard
open space) and QOL (Ambrey and Fleming,
to the impact of residential environments.
2014; Shafer et al., 2000; Sugiyama et al.,
One exception is the research of Yan et al.
2009). However, three research gaps can be
(2014) exploring how different types of
identified.
neighbourhoods are differentiated by neigh-
First, most wellbeing studies in the area
bourhood environments and how residents’
of geography and urban planning examine
socio-economic attributes influence the life
the national or regional level (Wang and
satisfaction of the elderly in Beijing. Given
Wang, 2016). Few empirical studies have
that most of the existing studies on the well-
been conducted to consider the impact of
being of the elderly have examined the rela-
micro-settings on QOL, such as neighbour-
tionship between the built environment and
hood effect. Even among the limited studies
QOL, the lack of similar studies in less devel-
on neighbourhood effect, the main focus has
oped countries, such as China, has raised the
been on environmental amenities such as
question of whether spatial patterns in the
open spaces and greenways (Cao, 2016).
cities of developing countries also have simi-
These factors are essential components of a
lar effects in determining QOL among the
residential environment, but they represent
elderly. This is particularly relevant, as
only one of its dimensions. Research consid-
China is now facing a much faster pace of
ering other dimensions of neighbourhood
aging than elsewhere in the world (England,
environments is needed, to enhance planners’
2005). While the proportion of the elderly
understanding of the connections between
around the world will increase from 6.6% in
the built environment and QOL.
1995 to 9.3% in 2020, China will experience
Second, rather limited attempts have been
a rise from 6.1% to 11.5% during the same
made to investigate the influence of the built
period (WHO, 2002). Projections suggest
environment on QOL among the elderly.
that by 2020, one out of every four global
Compared with the general population, the
seniors will live in China (James, 2002).
elderly tend to have different requirements
Obviously, the ways in which to improve the
for neighbourhood environments due to the
quality of life of these increasing populations
Feng et al.
will be of academic interest as well as a task
for the government. Furthermore, research
drawn from the data on China could give a
full, and perhaps deeper, understanding of
the relationship between the built environ-
ment and subjective wellbeing.
Therefore, to bridge these research gaps
mentioned above, this article aims to answer
the following research question based on a
recent survey: How do residential built envir-
onments influence the QOL of the elderly?
To achieve this, the article is organised as
follows: a literature review is presented in the
next section; the following section describes
the data, research area and methods; we then
present the results; and the final section dis-
cusses conclusions and implications for plan-
ning practice and research.
Literature review
The built environment and the QOL of the
elderly
Recent years have witnessed the emergence
of the relationships between the built envi-
ronment and QOL as an important topic in
the academic community and among local
governments (Cao, 2016). Shafer et al. (2000)
explored the effects of greenway facilities on
quality of life in Texas, indicating that urban
greenway trails primarily contribute to com-
munity quality of life through the health and
pride of residents, the natural areas and the
use of land. Ambrey and Fleming (2014)
investigated a positive relationship between
public greenspace and the QOL of residents
in the capital cities in Australia. Aside from
focusing on specific environmental amenities,
Cao (2016) explored the connections between
neighbourhood design and QOL, observing
that several neighbourhood characteristics,
such as mixed land use, high density and
street connectivity, exert effects on the QOL
of residents in the neighbourhoods of the
Twin Cities.
3
There are only a few studies that have
examined environmental correlates of the
QOL of the elderly. For instance, the enjoy-
ment of the neighbourhood, good facilities
and local services and good public transpor-
tation are found to contribute to the QOL
of older people in Britain (Gabriel and
Bowling, 2004). Sugiyama et al. (2009) have
also indicated that the pleasantness and
safety of neighbourhood open spaces were
associated with the QOL of participants
aged 65 years or older in Britain. Parra et al.
(2010) observed that safety from traffic,
safety in parks and street noise were associ-
ated with health-related QOL issues among
older adults in Bogota, Colombia. Friedman
et al. (2012) concluded that the QOL of the
elderly was related to neighbourhood safety
and social cohesion in New York City. A
neighbourhood environment facilitating the
elderly’s outdoor activities has also been
found to have a positive impact on their
wellbeing (Sugiyama and Thompson, 2006).
Additionally, several studies have
addressed the influence of environmental
characteristics on some components of the
QOL of older people. Yan et al. (2014)
explored the relationship between the life
satisfaction of seniors and elderly services
and the living environment in Beijing. Their
study highlights the importance of social
support and the need to differentiate the
approach in four types of neighbourhoods.
Jirovec et al. (1985) found that macro-
environmental conditions influenced the
residential satisfaction of urban elderly men
in Boston. Rioux and Werner (2011) indi-
cated that residential satisfaction corre-
sponds to local area, access to services,
relations with neighbours and the home
itself. Phillips et al. (2004) observed that liv-
ing environment and community facilities
were important to older people’s residential
satisfaction in Hong Kong. Then, Phillips
et al. (2005) further argued that the interior
environment exerted a greater effect than
4 Urban Studies
the exterior environment on the residential
satisfaction of the elderly. Finally, La Gory
and Fitpatrick (1992) indicated that living
in low-accessibility or less aged neighbour-
hoods increased depression among the
elderly.
In summary, prior studies on the correla-
tions between the built environment and the
QOL of older people are relatively limited.
Other than focusing on environmental ame-
nities, research on dimensions of the built
environment at the micro level is lacking.
Moreover, the impact of residential environ-
ments on the QOL of the elderly in less-
developed countries, such as China, has
scarcely been examined. To bridge these
gaps, more studies are needed.
Elderly people in urban China
Unlike the elderly in Western countries,
elderly people in China tend to live with
their children. This living arrangement is
rooted in traditional Chinese culture, which
places several generations under one roof in
a family that functions as a stable unit with
children, especially sons, who maintain a fil-
ial obligation to their parents (Chen and
Short, 2008; Fei, 1983). Along with socio-
economic changes, elderly parents, especially
those living in urban China, have begun to
have more varied expectations and prefer-
ences regarding living arrangements. For
instance, Logan and Bian (1999) found that
in major cities in China, many parents pre-
ferred to live independently rather than
co-residing with a married son. Due to low
fertility in urban areas, more old people in
cities would now prefer to live alone in their
final years (Zhang and Goza, 2006). Despite
these trends, the rate of extended family
cohabitation is still much higher in China
than in most Western countries (Chen and
Short, 2008). Moreover, in China, parents
and their adult children assist each other
(Feng, 2016). Co-residence with children
does not mean care by children; domestic
work has to be shouldered by aged parents,
especially women. Even when parents do
not live with their adult children, instrumen-
tal support, including daily shopping, cook-
ing and caregiving for grandchildren, is
often provided by elderly parents in China
(Goh, 2009). Traditional family structures
are thus maintained in Chinese society for
cultural and economic reasons.
In China, the divide between rural and
urban areas is substantial. Compared to
their counterparts in the countryside, older
people in urban areas are much more likely
to attend senior schools, receive retirement
income and have better access to healthcare
facilities (Chen and Short, 2008). Housing
reforms in China, which started in the late
1990s, have allowed more old people in
urban areas to own housing and to choose
their preferred living arrangements (Meng
and Luo, 2008). Additionally, traditional
Chinese culture, which places a high value
on family, is more dominant in rural areas
than in urban areas (Su et al., 2006). These
obvious differences greatly influence the
behaviour of the elderly. For instance, urban
elderly persons are more active both physi-
cally and mentally, using their leisure time
for such activities as travelling and exercis-
ing, than rural older people (Su et al., 2006).
Moreover, social interactions, such as con-
tact with relatives, friends and the neigh-
bourhood, are found to greatly contribute to
the QOL of elderly people in urban China
(Sun et al., 2011).
Theoretical framework and
research design
Theoretical framework and variable
descriptions
In this article, Campbell’s model (Campbell
et al., 1976), which is widely used in the field
of residential environment and QOL, is
Feng et al.
Figure 1. Campbell’s model.
Figure 2. Theoretical model of the article.
adopted to investigate the residential built
environment and QOL of the elderly in
China. In the model, quality of life is the
individual’s perceived level of satisfaction
with life in general, which is related to the
level of satisfaction in various life domains.
The conceptual model employed is one in
which satisfaction with life in a particular
domain is dependent on an individual’s per-
ception of the objective environment and on
an evaluation of experiences in particular life
domains (Figure 1). In other words, QOL
results from a process of objective stimuli,
cognitive responses and domain-specific
satisfactions.
Based on Campbell’s model, the theoreti-
cal model is created (Figure 2). Perceptions
of the built environment, which includes
three aspects – accessibility, the walking
5
environment and communication spaces –
represent cognitive responses to neighbour-
hood features. The three perceptions
influence satisfaction with a life domain
(including four parts: satisfaction with
health conditions, residence, transport and
social interaction), which in turn contributes
to global life satisfaction. It may be easier to
understand the impact of the perceptions of
accessibility, the walking environment and
communication spaces on satisfaction with
health conditions, residence and social inter-
actions, while the relationship between
perception of communication spaces and
satisfaction with transport needs more
explanation. Generally, there are at least
two preconditions, if not others, needed to
give the elderly a positive perception of com-
munication spaces: one is having places and
6 Urban Studies
activities nearby for communicating, and the
other is having easy access to these places
and activities. The former refers to the prox-
imity of communication places and activities
while the latter relies more on the transport
conditions between communication spaces
and the home. Therefore, good perceptions
of communication spaces necessitate good
transportation conditions.
In our model, the objective built environ-
ment includes four factors: population den-
sity, built year, informal space and danwei.
Personal characteristics refer to personal
socio-demographics. In this article, gender,
education level, income, hukou status, resi-
dential status and Communist Party mem-
bership are included. The objective built
environment and personal characteristics are
exogenous variables, whereas perceptions of
the built environment and satisfaction with
a life domain are endogenous factors. In the
following section, the reasons for choosing
these factors are provided.
In terms of objective neighbourhood fea-
tures, population density is a widely used
factor among studies of the built environ-
ment and quality of life (Chen et al., 2008;
Cramer et al., 2004). The built year of hous-
ing could not only reflect the interior living
conditions (e.g. size, quality and design of a
house) but also represent the built environ-
ment of the community. The factors ‘infor-
mal space’ and ‘danwei (work unit)’ are also
often adopted in research about China
(Bray, 2005; Wang et al., 2009; Wu, 2002),
indicating the typical attributes of the sur-
roundings in urban China.
In the urbanisation process in China, a
large number of rural-to-urban migrants
moved into urban areas, which created a
two-class urban society (Chan, 1996) in addi-
tion to various informal spaces, such as
shacks and urban villages (Wang et al., 2009;
Wu, 2002). Informal spaces can be regarded
as flexible, low-cost places of survival that
provide irregular work and are outside state
regulations. In this article, informal spaces
are measured by the number of streets that
do not have street vendors within a 1 km
buffer of the resident’s home.
Danwei ‘. is a generic term denoting the
Chinese socialist workplace and the specific
range of practices that it embodies’ (Bray,
2005: 3). Danweis can be enterprises (e.g.
shops or factories), public institutions (e.g.
schools, hospitals or research institutes),
party organs, government departments or
military units (Feng et al., 2013). In the pre-
reform era, danweis formed an institutional
context that integrated urban productive
activities and social life into the same loca-
tion. Apart from salary, the danwei provided
its employees with a comprehensive package
of welfare and services (including housing).
The danwei system is actually a cellular mul-
tifunctional work unit structure. In this arti-
cle, danwei is measured by whether or not
the community belongs to the work unit.
Regarding the perceived built environ-
ment, previous studies have suggested that
neighbourhood environments could have
various benefits for the elderly, including
physiological benefits, which address the
maintenance and enhancement of physical
health and functioning, and psychological
benefits, including stress reduction, QOL
and subjective wellbeing (Barnes, 2002;
Sugiyama and Thompson, 2007; Sugiyama
et al., 2009). According to Sugiyama and
Thompson (2007), three different methods
of engagement with neighbourhood environ-
ments can be identified: (1) participation in
various activities in outdoor environments;
(2) exposure to the natural elements out-
doors; and (3) social interaction with friends
and neighbours in outdoor places. We there-
fore attempt to investigate the influences of
these three corresponding aspects of the
neighbourhood environment on QOL: per-
ceived accessibility, walking environment
and communication spaces.
Feng et al.
QOL includes four domains in the model.
Health condition is one of the most predomi-
nant factors of QOL (Palmore and Luikart,
1972). Satisfaction with residence has been
identified by a number of relevant studies
(Amérigo and Aragones, 1997; Byrnes et al.,
2006) and is one of the mediating processes
through which objective environmental fea-
tures influence QOL (Cao, 2016). It is also
well accepted that transportation mobility
and social interaction are closely linked to
one’s QOL (Lim and Putnam, 2010; Spinney
et al., 2009).
Measures
In this study, QOL is measured using the
widely utilised and readily available
Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), devel-
oped by Diener et al. (1985). The five SWLS
statements are: ‘In most ways, my life is
close to my ideal’, ‘I am satisfied with my
life’, ‘So far, I have achieved the important
things I want in life’, ‘The conditions of my
life are excellent’ and ‘If I could live my life
over again, I would change almost nothing’.
Respondents rated the statements on a five-
point ordinal scale from ‘Strongly disagree’
(1) to ‘Strongly agree’ (5). The Cronbach’s
alpha value of this subscale was 0.739, indi-
cating reliability.
Satisfaction with the residential environ-
ment, transportation and social interaction
were measured using a single question in the
survey. Specifically, respondents were asked
to indicate how well they were satisfied with
their current residential environment, trans-
port provisions and social interaction with
neighbours on a five-point scale from
‘extremely unsatisfied’ (1) to ‘extremely sat-
isfied’ (5). For these perceived neighbour-
hood characteristics, respondents were
asked to indicate how true a list of charac-
teristics was for their current neighbourhood
on a five-point scale from ‘not at all true’ (1)
to ‘entirely true’ (5).
7
As shown later in Figure 3, this study is
interested in 11 attributes, which are the
observed indicators of the three latent vari-
ables. The Cronbach’s alpha values of acces-
sibility, walking environment and
communication spaces are 0.729, 0.714 and
0.791, respectively. We also control for per-
sonal socio-demographics. Gender, educa-
tion level and income are socio-economic
variables that are commonly used in the
research on QOL (Cao, 2016; Friedman
et al., 2012; Sugiyama et al., 2009).
Additionally, several factors with particular
Chinese characteristics are selected in the
article. Hukou status and Communist Party
membership are observed to contribute to
people’s QOL in urban China (Appleton
and Song, 2008). In contrast with the West,
for cultural and economic reasons Chinese
seniors often live together with their family
members, particularly married children
(Logan and Bian, 1999). Therefore, we
choose two variables addressing family
structure: co-residing with grandchildren
and co-residing with elderly parents.
Research area and dataset
Nanjing was selected as the research area in
the article. It is the capital city of Jiangsu
Province and the sub-centre of the Yangtze
Delta behind Shanghai, which is located in
the most developed eastern area of China.
In 2014, it covered an area of 4723 square
kilometres and administered a total popula-
tion of 8.22 million (Municipal Bureau of
Statistics of Nanjing, 2015). We analysed the
connections between the built environment
and the QOL of the elderly based on a sur-
vey called ‘The quality of life of the elderly
in Nanjing’, which was conducted between
September and November 2015. The survey
was funded by a national grant and was con-
ducted by the research team. It was designed
to investigate how the built environment
influences the quality of life of the elderly
8 Urban Studies

Figure 3. Locations of the 12 communities in Nanjing.

through satisfaction with various life
domains (e.g. residence, transport, health,
education, work and family life).
A stratified sampling method was adopted
to carry out the survey. We first looked at
different communities in the entire Nanjing
metropolitan area with different built environ-
ment characteristics. Based on this knowledge,
we selected representative communities and
then randomly sampled the elderly people in
Feng et al. 9

Table 1. Profile of sample.

Attributes Categories Sample Proportion (%)

Gender Male 242 39.6

Female (= ref.) 369 60.4
Age 60–65 (= ref.) 202 33.1
66–70 209 34.2
Older than 70 200 32.7
Educational level Illiteracy (= ref.) 56 9.2
Primary school 80 13.1
Middle school 206 33.7
High school or technical 155 25.4
Secondary school
University and above 114 18.6
Income (RMB 0–1000 (= ref.) 147 24.1
per month) 1001–2000 54 8.8
2001–3000 210 34.4
3001–4000 95 15.5
4001–5000 49 8.0
More than 5000 56 9.2
Hukou Local people 412 67.4
Non-local people (= ref.) 199 32.6
Co-residing with Without (= ref.) 405 66.3
grandchildren With 206 33.7
Co-residing with two elderly parents 38 6.2
elderly parents One elderly parent 116 19.0
No elderly parent (= ref.) 457 74.8
Member of the Yes 135 22.1
Communist Party No (= ref.) 476 77.9

these chosen communities. Utilisation of this distributions of facilities near communities

prior knowledge made the variance within
the strata smaller than within the overall pop-
ulation, therefore producing better strata effi-
ciency than systematic sampling or random
sampling methods (Yan et al., 2014). In our
case, 12 communities were selected to repre-
sent different built environments in terms of
the location and the interior and exterior cir-
cumstances of the community (see Figure 3
and Table 2). Regarding the location, the dis-
tance to the city centre and the distance to
main traffic lines and metro stations were
taken into account. The interior and exterior
circumstances were according to the built
year, the type of community (danwei commu-
nity/commodity apartment community/
affordable housing community) and the
(e.g. food markets, supermarkets, squares,
parks, gyms and cultural centres). In each
community, we drew a random sample of
about 50 elderly respondents that we either
encountered in their communities or surveyed
at their homes. In total, we collected data
from 650 individuals. The final, valid sample
includes 611 respondents, and the percent of
the valid sample is 94%.
Table 1 presents the demographic and
social economic characteristics of the sam-
ple. There is a higher proportion of women
than men. Older people (aged above 65
years) comprise 66.9% of the total sample.
The proportion with an education level of
high school and above is 44.1%. Few older
adults (17.2%) had incomes higher than
10 Urban Studies

Table 2. Built environments of the 12 communities in Nanjing.

Name Population density Built year Informal space Danwei (yes/no)

(person/ha.) (year) (percentage)

Jinming Jiayuan 58 12 4 0
Heyuan 41 5 0 0
Nanqi Sancun 378 21 14 1
Shuangheyuan 105 8 4 0
Xiti Guoji 125 8 0 0
Xikang 353 20 9 0
Xingyuan Jiayuan 121 9 0 0
Yijin Huayuan 270 18 18 1
Yingtuo Sili 59 19 10 1
Yingtuo Yongkang 59 17 10 0
Yunyanyuan 78 14 16 0
Zuolin Youli 67 6 3 0

4000 RMB per month. Moreover, 67.4% of
respondents held local hukou in contrast
with migrants in the city (32.6%).
In terms of living patterns, 33.7% of the
elderly co-resided with grandchildren and
25.2% of them lived with their elder parents.
Additionally, a portion of respondents
(22.1%) were members of the Communist
Party.
Results
Figure 4 presents the results of the measure-
ment models. First, the goodness-of-fit mea-
sures reveal that the model is acceptable.
Root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA) is currently the most popular mea-
sure of model fit. In the model, the value
(0.069) is less than 0.08, indicating a reason-
able fit. Standardised root mean square resi-
dual (SRMR) is defined as the standardised
difference between the observed correlation
and the predicted correlation. The value in the
model is 0.061 (less than 0.08), representing an
acceptable fit. Comparative Fit Index (CFI)
varies between 0 and 1. In the model, the
value is closer to 1 (0.920), indicating a good
fit. Second, all latent variables are significantly
associated with their respective observed indi-
cators. The latent QOL measures a global
judgement of QOL. Accessibility measures
access to different types of facilities, including
markets, hospitals, schools and public trans-
portation. Walking environment indicates the
neighbourhood surroundings available for
walking, and communication space measures
the neighbourhood environment for social
interactions.
Table 2 illustrates the outcomes of the
path analysis. In the model, RMSEA =
0.066, SRMR = 0.016 and CFI = 0.942,
indicating an acceptable fit. All objectives
measures were included in the model. The
demographic variables and built environ-
ment factors described above were also
tested in the path analysis. The squared mul-
tiple correlation (SMC) for the latent
accessibility, walking environment and com-
munication space ranged from 0.448 to
0.537, indicating that a number of variations
in the endogenous variables can be explained
by the variables in the model.
As indicated by Table 3, satisfaction with
the four specific life domains all significantly
contributes to the global life satisfaction
among the elderly. As expected, high accessi-
bility will result in satisfaction with transport
conditions and social integration. A good
walking environment could lead to satisfac-
tion with health conditions, residences and
Feng et al.
Figure 4. Measurements models.
social integration. Positive perceptions of
communication spaces are significantly asso-
ciated with satisfaction with transport. It is
reasonable that giving the elderly convenient
access to the places they can be socially
involved implies good transport conditions
and therefore perceived high degrees of satis-
faction with their transport.
Built environment
Our analysis finds that population density is
positively related to accessibility, though this
11
relationship is insignificant (see Table 4).
However, it has negative influence on walk-
ing environment (significant) and communi-
cation space (insignificant). The total effects
of population density on satisfaction in the
four life domains and global QOL are all
insignificant, which is probably due to the
opposite effect of density on accessibility
and walking environment. In fact, there are
debates on the influences of population den-
sity on QOL in academic communities. On
the one hand, high density is generally
Table 3. Standardised coefficients of the structural equations model.
12

Accessibility Walking Communication Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction QOL

environment spaces with health with with with social
condition residence transport interaction

Endogenous
variables
Accessibility NA NA NA –0.058 –0.045 0.579*** 0.156** NA
Walking NA NA NA 0.336** 0.643*** 0.070 0.205** NA
environment
Communication NA NA NA 0.135 –0.147 0.197** 0.084 NA
spaces
Satisfaction with NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 0.250***
health condition
Satisfaction with NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 0.344***
residence
Satisfaction with NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 0.284***
transport
Satisfaction with NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 0.132**
social interaction
Exogenous variables
Built environment
Population density 0.046 –0.122* –0.092 NA NA NA NA NA
Built year –0.425*** –0.659*** –0.574*** NA NA NA NA NA
Informal space –0.306*** –0.197** –0.237*** NA NA NA NA NA
Danwei –0.303*** –0.437*** –0.279*** NA NA NA NA NA
Demographics
Gender 0.027 –0.008 0.101* –0.011 0.019 –0.053 0.030 0.052
Age 0.040 0.069 0.048 0.007 –0.105** 0.005 –0.037 –0.024
Educational level –0.091 –0.299*** –0.231** 0.078 0.139** 0.113** 0.082 –0.177***
Income –0.166** –0.210** –0.204** –0.022 0.036 0.089 0.014 –0.225***
Hukou 0.257*** 0.172** 0.218*** –0.052 –0.004 –0.071 0.034 0.061
Co-residing with 0.183*** 0.182** 0.143** 0.095** 0.100 –0.067** 0.009** 0.062
grandchildren
Co-residing with –0.092** –0.127** –0.104** 0.086** 0.023 0.062 0.038 –0.120**
elderly parents
(continued)
Urban Studies
Table 3. Continued

Accessibility Walking Communication Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction QOL

Feng et al.

environment spaces with health with with with social

condition residence transport interaction

Member of the 0.096** 0.107** 0.079 0.056 –0.050 –0.071 –0.025* 0.092**
Communist Party
SMC 0.524 0.537 0.448 0.183 0.260 0.495 0.150 0.617

Notes: Number of observations = 611. Bootstrap replications = 50. SMC = squared multiple correlation.
NA means that there is no direct link between the two variables. Goodness-of-fit measures: Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.066 \ 0.08;
Standardised Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMR) = 0.016 \ 0.08; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.942.
*
p \ 0.05, **p \ 0.01, ***p \ 0.001.

Table 4. Total effects of built environment.

Accessibility Walking Communication Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction QOL

environment spaces with health with with with social
condition residence transport interaction

Population 0.046 –0.122* –0.092 –0.051 –0.063 –0.040 –0.053 –0.055

density
Built year –0.425*** –0.659*** –0.574*** –0.274*** –0.321*** –0.249*** –0.405*** –0.327***
Informal space –0.306*** –0.197** –0.237*** –0.080 –0.078 –0.108 –0.238** –0.129**
Danwei (danwei = ref.) –0.303*** –0.437*** –0.279*** –0.167 –0.227*** –0.160 –0.261*** –0.215**

Notes: *p \ 0.05, **p \ 0.01, ***p \ 0.001.

13
14
related to the high accessibility of various
opportunities and therefore could foster
activity participation. Accessibility to facili-
ties and services that are essential for the
maintenance of daily life is particularly
important for the elderly given their limited
mobility. Additionally, high-density devel-
opment improves government efficiency in
financing development and lowers the cost
in providing basic services (Bruegmann,
2006). This improved efficiency will increase
the competitive advantages of the city and
will in turn improve the QOL of the urban
residents. Hence, high density is presumably
associated with a high level of QOL. On the
other hand, high density is also related to
crowded streets and noisy living conditions,
which are harmful to subjective wellbeing
(Rodgers, 1982). In the survey, the popula-
tion density of the majority of the commu-
nities in the survey (11 communities) is
higher than the average level in Western
European cities (55 person per ha)
(Kenworthy and Hu, 2002), meaning a rela-
tively high level in Nanjing. In the article,
the negative link between density and walk-
ing environment is thus likely due to
Chinese cities generally having high density
(Kenworthy and Hu, 2002), which may
make the walking environment crowed,
noisy and unsafe.
Built year is a more compound indicator
for several reasons. It could refer to the inte-
rior environment, such as the size, quality
and design of the house. It is also, to some
extent, a proxy for some outdoors environ-
mental attributes, such as the management
of the housing estate and the amount and
quality of public facilities and spaces, etc.
Generally speaking, old buildings are often
related to a low level of interior environ-
ment, such as small housing units (crowded-
ness), the declining quality of the house, and
deteriorating outdoors environments, such
as a low level of management and security
of the estate/community, and a lack of
Urban Studies
public spaces. Therefore, an increased age of
the building is presumably associated with a
low level of accessibility, walking environ-
ment and communication spaces. The results
of this current article have confirmed these
negative impacts. The total effects on satis-
faction with specific life domains and global
QOL are also negative and significant, indi-
cating that the elderly living in new buildings
are generally happier than those living in old
buildings.
It is worth noting that compared with the
other characters of built environment
employed in this article, built year demon-
strates the most pronounced effects on all of
the satisfaction with specific life domains
and global QOL. The reason could be that
built year, compared with other measures in
this article, could represent more informa-
tion on interior environments. With advan-
cing years and an increasing life expectancy,
many elders spend a greater proportion of
time at home over their lifetimes. Therefore,
the interior environment tends to have a
greater impact on QOL than the exterior
environment, especially given the impaired
mobility brought on by increasing age.
As indicated in Table 3, informal space is
negatively related to walking environment
and communication space. In the article,
informal spaces are measured by the number
of streets that have street vendors and other
informal businesses within a 1 km buffer of
the respondent’s home. The more street ven-
dors there are, the higher the percentage of
rural migrants living in the area. In addition,
these places are generally characterised by
lower standards of housing and basic facili-
ties, a lower quality of their physical envi-
ronment and a greater concentration of the
low-income classes (Wang et al., 2009). It
could be the case that the presence of street
vendors makes the street crowded or even
blocks the sidewalks, which makes them dif-
ficult to walk through. In addition, the
higher percentage of indigent people in these
Feng et al.
areas might result in greater safety problems
for residents, especially for the elderly. In
this regard, the elderly might be reluctant to
go out to communicate with others. Hence,
negative relationships are found between
informal spaces and walking environment
and communication spaces.
It is surprising that informal space is neg-
ative related to accessibility. Because of the
presence of street vendors, it ought to be
convenient to buy vegetables, fruits and
other daily goods. However, due to the poor
walking environment, it is not easy to access
public facilities, such as healthcare or public
transportation, which offsets the positive
effects of buying daily goods. The total effect
of informal space on QOL is significant and
negative, suggesting that the elderly who
lived in areas with more informal spaces had
lower QOL.
Living in danwei communities is signifi-
cantly related to good accessibility, walking
environment and communication spaces for
the elderly. Those people also reported high
satisfaction with their residence, social inter-
action and QOL. The underlying reasons
might be two-fold. Firstly, danwei is, to
some extent, a self-contained community
given that it provides its employees not only
employment but also housing, school,
healthcare, a nursery, recreation and con-
sumer goods all in the same area. Second,
and perhaps more important, danwei is the
place that workers and their families work
and make a living, and it is also the place for
them to play and live with each other (Lee
et al., 2005). Under such a system, people
tend to develop strong workplace ties and
rely on coworkers, most of whom are also
their neighbours. Scholars have found that
coworkers and neighbours are more impor-
tant for the Chinese than for Westerners in
terms of the positons they take in Chinese
social networks (Ruan, 1998). The close ties
between coworkers (in most cases, also
neighbours) are formed by the arrangement
15
of danwei; therefore, it can greatly improve
its employees’ QOL.
Socio-demographics
According to the results, high income is
negatively related to QOL, which might be
caused by the covariation of people’s aspira-
tions and a social comparison effect
(Easterlin, 2003). In a similar vein, educa-
tional level is also negatively related to
QOL. That is probably because China’s cul-
tural tradition is often more concerned with
equality of outcomes rather than equality of
rights and opportunities. Being faced with
rapid economic changes and a widening gap
between the rich and the poor, comparisons
(with other individuals, with the past and
with future expectations) pose a significant
threat to the subjective wellbeing of Chinese
urban residents.
Compared with the non-local elderly, the
local elderly tends to have a high perception
of accessibility, walking environment and
communication places. Most of the non-
local elderly come to Nanjing to take care of
grandchildren or to obtain care from a son
or daughter. For them, Nanjing is still a
place with which they are not familiar.
Therefore, compared with local people, they
have a relatively low assessment of the resi-
dential environment. However, there is no
significant influence on QOL. The possible
reason for this could be that most of the
non-local elderly come from rural areas or
cities smaller than Nanjing. The sense of
‘getting promoted’ might offset the negative
effects of the built environment.
Co-residing with grandchildren shows no
significant influence on QOL. However, co-
residing with elderly parents turns out to be
negatively related to QOL. In China,
Confucian cultural traditions put a great
emphasis on family ties, paternalism and fil-
ial piety (Fei, 1983). Despite this strong
emphasis on family values, elderly parents of
16
older people are more likely to suffer from
poor conditions physically and psychologi-
cally because of their age, and therefore
looking after older parents may be a sub-
stantial burden for those who have already
entered old age, reducing their QOL. In con-
trast, it might be interesting to take care of
grandchildren for the elderly, which offsets
the negative impact on QOL, such as
tiredness.
In China, political status is an important
variable in that members of the Chinese
Communist Party are generally in the social
elite and thus may have a higher sense of
QOL. Additionally, due to the social com-
parison effect, being members of the Chinese
Communist Party may bring the elderly a
feeling of superiority. The result echoes pre-
vious findings indicating that Communist
Party members have higher levels of QOL in
urban China (Appleton and Song, 2008).
Discussions and conclusions
Many factors influence QOL, and there is a
growing consensus among urban and
regional policy makers that the character of
the built environment is one of them.
Additionally, considering that the popula-
tions in many countries, including some less-
developed countries, are gradually aging, the
ways in which to improve the quality of life
for elderly people have attracted increasing
attention from various policy makers and
scholars. Another reason for the importance
of research on quality of life in development
discourse lies in the issue of effective alloca-
tion of scarce resources. Given limited
resources, local governments need to find
the most efficient ways of distributing them
in line with the needs and priorities of the
people. It has been argued that understand-
ing quality of life before formulating actions
and measures to allocate welfare to society
will ensure the sustainability of the process
while minimising externalities. Despite the
Urban Studies
need for such studies, research on the corre-
lations between the built environment and
the quality of life of the elderly in developing
countries, such as China, has been limited to
date. Therefore, using a recent survey in
Nanjing, China, this article was established
to explore the relationship between the built
environment and the QOL of the elderly
based on a structural framework.
Our results suggest that satisfaction with
specific life domains, including health condi-
tion, residential environment, transportation
and social interaction, all exert positive and
significant impacts on QOL for elderly peo-
ple. However, among the four life domains,
the impact of residential satisfaction is the
largest, whereas that of social interaction is
the smallest. Previous studies have indicated
that quality of life could be divided into two
levels, encompassing the personal quality of
life and the interpersonal quality of life
(Diener and Suh, 1997). Generally, the per-
sonal quality of life represents the basic life
needs, including health, shelter and mobility,
while the interpersonal one concerns the
higher life needs, such as social and educa-
tional domains. It has been discovered that
at different development levels, people might
emphasise different perspectives (Diener and
Suh, 1997). The results here indicate that the
elderly in China currently put higher empha-
sis on basic needs than higher life needs. For
policy makers, it is important to understand
the level of quality of life because they could
regulate the current life decisions of the
elderly and seek their higher needs from a
dynamic viewpoint.
This article also finds that population
density demonstrated no significant influ-
ence on QOL, whereas built year, informal
space and danwei were negatively related to
all the specific life domains and QOL. The
standardised coefficient of built year is the
largest of the factors. The results illustrate
the features and development levels of cities
in China. For older people in urban China,
Feng et al.
several factors of built environment, such as
proper interior conditions of housing, high
standards of facilities and physical environ-
ment, strong social interactions with cowor-
kers and neighbours and high accessibility
to facilities, may largely improve their qual-
ity of life.
Regarding socio-economic factors, the
effects of educational attainment, income
and membership of the Communist Party on
the QOL of the elderly are significant, indi-
cating the importance of social comparison
and expectation of subjective wellbeing for
the elderly in urban China. In addition,
despite the influence of Confucian ideology,
which attaches importance to family values,
family care provided by the elderly has a dif-
ferent influence on their sense of quality of
life, which might be associated with what
the elderly judge to be the pays and returns.
The results of the current article have
some policy implications. Firstly, a compact
urban form, including a highly dense popu-
lation, is encouraged by local governments
in developed countries to achieve lower land
consumption as well as cheaper infrastruc-
ture and utility costs in pursuing sustainable
development. However, recent developments
in the discourse of compact form have
shifted into a more livable city than only
pursuing an efficient physical urban system.
In other words, improvements in the quality
of life (QOL) weigh more than efficiency in
the current value orientation of compact
form. The results of the article indicate that
population density has no significant influ-
ence on QOL, suggesting that compact
development policies need to be tailored to
suit the context of developing countries
rather than just being taken for granted
from the practices in developed countries.
Secondly, we found that informal spaces
were negatively related to almost all of the
specific life domains and QOL. Currently,
several publications have praised the
17
importance and necessity of these informal
spaces (e.g. the urban village) for migrants
(Song et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2009) in that
they can provide informal employment and
low-cost living spaces. However, relatively
less attention has been paid to how these
places influence the perception and quality
of life of local urban residents. This article
thus added new reflections addressing how
these places influence the QOL of the elderly:
they are detrimental to QOL. That is not to
say that the demands and perceptions of
local residents outweigh that of rural
migrants. It is just to suggest the importance
of taking into account the ideas of all popu-
lation segments when making proper
policies.
Thirdly, the effects of danwei can be sepa-
rated into two aspects: in terms of built envi-
ronment, it indicates that a high level of
land use mixture and job–housing balance
can greatly improve residents’ QOL; in
terms of social interaction, it actually sug-
gests the importance of co-workers and
neighbours in the social networks of Chinese
people. However, due to the urban land and
housing reforms that eventually removed the
responsibilities of the danwei to provide
housing for its employees, the structure of
the social networks of the Chinese people
have changed, and a decrease in social inter-
action is observed (Ruan et al., 1997). An
arrangement similar to that of danwei or
some other substitution is needed to pro-
mote social interaction and, consequently,
the QOL of the Chinese people.
There are a few limitations of the study.
First, the built environment may have an
impact on the QOL of elderly people at dif-
ferent geographical scales; nevertheless, this
article only explored the association at the
neighbourhood level. Other scales, such as
the street level and city level, are not dis-
cussed. Second, due to the cross-sectional
data this article relies on, the direction of the
18
influence for the association between specific
life domains and the global life satisfaction
of the elderly is not clear-cut. In other
words, it could be the case that happy peo-
ple give positive evaluations of the condi-
tions of health, residence, transport and
social interaction. Third, the survey adopted
in the article focuses on one selected city
rather than all urban settlements in China.
Nevertheless, we expect that findings in
Nanjing would echo, if not represent, obser-
vations in other cities in similar situations,
and they could bring insight into a segment
of the associations between the neighbour-
hood environment and QOL of urban
elderly people in China. These issues could
be addressed in the future with well-designed
longitudinal data in more Chinese cities with
high representativeness.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of
interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
Funding
This research is funded by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (41401150;
41401175) and the Natural Science Foundation
of Jiangsu Province of China (BK20141325).
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