Components of the Residential Environment and Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Elderly

This article aims to establish the components that best represent the different elements of the residential environment (home and building in which it is located, residential neighbourhood and neighbours) and analyse the relationships existing between the specific components that bring satisfaction and the characteristics of the residents aged 65 and over, with the hypothesis that better demographic and social conditions will have a positive influence on their residential perception. The data was drawn from a telephone survey, including objective and subjective items, that was conducted in 1998 with a representative sample of 1,148 people aged between 65 and 84 years who live in family housing in Madrid. A Factor Analysis was applied, giving 17 residential components, 10 related to the home/building element and 7 to the neighbourhood/neighbours element. This was followed by a Cluster Analysis of the 6 factors containing primary and specific residential satisfaction information, giving a variable of types of elderly people with 4 homogenous and self-excluding clusters. Subsequent statistical analyses revealed significant differences in the elderly population's residential satisfaction, associated to gender, age, perceived health status, social class, income and structure of the home in which they live, but not to their marital status, the number of people who live in their household nor the average age of the members of the household.