# Investigating the relationship between public community landscape space and older adults’ health using structural equation modeling

## TL;DR

This study shows that better community landscapes improve older adults' health, especially for those with lower socioeconomic status, by encouraging outdoor activity and social interaction.

## Contribution

The study uniquely integrates socio-ecological and environmental frameworks using SEM to quantify health pathways in aging populations.

## Key findings

- Community landscape quality directly improves older adults' health (β = 0.280, p < 0.001).
- Low-SES groups benefit more directly from environmental quality, while high-SES groups benefit more through behavioral pathways.
- The model explains 51.2% of the variance in health outcomes, showing the importance of landscape quality and SES in health equity.

## Abstract

This study examined how community landscape quality impacts older adults’ health through outdoor activity and social participation, while assessing socioeconomic status (SES) as a moderator, within China’s urbanization and aging context.

A cross-sectional survey of 427 urban older adults measured landscape quality, physical activity, social participation, SES, and health (physical, mental, and satisfaction). SEM analyzed direct/indirect pathways and SES moderation.

Community landscape space quality had a significant direct effect on older adults’ health (β = 0.280, p < 0.001), as well as indirect effects through outdoor exercise (β = 0.120) and social participation (β = 0.083). The model explained 51.2% of the total variance in health outcomes. The moderating effect of SES was significant: low-SES groups derived stronger direct health benefits from environmental quality, whereas high-SES groups achieved health improvements more through behavioral pathways, revealing heterogeneity in the “environment-health” mechanism across different socioeconomic groups.

The findings indicate that high-quality community landscape spaces effectively promote healthy aging among older adults by activating mechanisms such as physical activity and social participation. At the same time, pathway differences across SES groups suggest that future urban intervention strategies should account for social stratification characteristics to achieve health equity. This study uniquely integrates socio-ecological and environmental determinants frameworks to quantify multi-pathway influences on older adults’ health using SEM, underscoring both its originality and international relevance.