Liu, Q, Liu, Y, Zhang, C et al. (2 more authors) (2021) Elderly mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative exploration in Kunming, China. Journal of Transport Geography, 96. 103176. ISSN 0966-6923
Abstract
The outbreak of COVID-19 in China started at the end of December 2019. This led to a series of containment measurements to control the spread of COVID-19. Despite of the widely reported effects of these measures, inadequate attention has gone to their social impacts. The elderly, as one of the most susceptible populations, has experienced a considerable reduction in mobility.
This paper explores the role mobility played and how the social environment influenced elderly mobility in the first 2 months of the COVID-19 outbreak. We surveyed 186 families with a total of 248 elderly people in Kunming. The results show that mobility improves the quality of daily living, such as access to grocery shopping, maintenance of outdoor activities for health cultivation and preserving social networks even during the pandemic. Four themes relating to social environment emerged from the data as elements influencing elderly mobility during the pandemic: social pressure, practice of the virtue of Xiao, the social norm of respecting the aged and the impacts of technological advances. Among them, the virtue of Xiao enabled the elderly to stay in place in the early phase of COVID-19 by fulfilling their needs for daily necessities and social interactions, whilst being less technology-savvy further excluded them socially by restraining them from restoring mobility after the lifting of travel restrictions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of an article published in Journal of Transport Geography. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Elderly mobility; Social environment; Xiao; Technology-driven transport-related social exclusion |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 02 Sep 2021 12:53 |
Last Modified: | 26 Feb 2023 01:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2021.103176 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:177696 |