Arctic Healthy Aging communities: Safe and inclusive outdoor environment and public spaces
The Nordic AHA-Communities
Project information
Project duration
-
Funded by
Other International
Project funder
Funding amount
200 000 EUR
Project coordinator
University of Oulu
Unit and faculty
Contact information
Project leader
- Arja Rautio
Contact person
Project description
The purpose of this Nordic Council of Ministers project is to create an expert network and investigate how older people perceive their lived urban and rural mobility space and the impact of environmental conditions in Arctic wintertime. The project is led by the University of Oulu in Finland. Project partners include the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and the University of Iceland. Specifically, the project investigates 1) how older people describe their outdoor surroundings for their activities and participation; 2) how older people describe their mobility and outdoor safety; and 3) how older people in the Arctic experience barriers and enablers for outdoor use. The results will be disseminated locally and internationally to relevant policymakers, stakeholders, NGOs, the public and researchers. The project duration is 36 months, started in August 2023.
University of Oulu staff involved in the project from the Arctic Health research group:
Lead of the project Prof. Arja Rautio, arja.rautio@oulu.fi
Coordinator and researcher in the project Dr. Anastasia Emelyanova, anastasia.emelyanova@oulu.fi
Researcher from Sweden: Agneta Larsson, Luleå University of Technology, Agneta.Larsson@ltu.se
Researcher from Iceland: Steinunn Arnars Ólafsdóttir, University of Iceland, sao@hi.is
Project actions
Upcoming conferences:
- APECS Sweden conference. Early career Arctic Sustainability Research, Sep 2025, Umeå, Sweden
- NUNAMED conference, Oct 2023, Nuuk, Greenland. Own session "Outdoor environment and healthy ageing in the Nordic Arctic region"
- International Gerontological Days 2025 conference, Oct 2025, online
- Ageing is Living: Building Age-Friendly Communities in the Nordic-Baltic Region conference, Nov 2025, Copenhagen, Denmark
- UArctic congress May 2026, Faroe Islands
Past events where project participants took part:
- 14th Nordic Public Health Conference, May 2025, Goteborg, Sweden
- Walk21 Portugal, Everybody Walks, Oct 2024, Lisbon, Portugal
- AiAA Participatory Webinar on Ageing in an accessible Arctic ,Sep 2024 online
- 27th Nordic Congress of Gerontology "Ageing in a transforming world", Jun 2024
- Arctic Congress Bodo 2024, May 2024, Norway. Own session “Promoting healthy and inclusive ageing in Arctic people and communities”
- Arctic Health network meeting May 2024, Copenhagen on 26-28 May
- Networking meeting of experts in Arctic healthy ageing, Feb 20, 2024, online
- International Gerontological Days 2023 conference, Oct 2023, online
Project results
Policy review was undertaken to identify and review the policies related to age-inclusive outdoor spaces in the Arctic regions of Nordic countries. We found that with few exceptions, the older people of the rural Arctic is strikingly absent in the Nordic national governmental papers. Moreover, access to outdoor spaces is mentioned in general terms, and specific challenges of the rural Arctic context, such as the harsh climate, long winters and geographical distances are not addressed. The noticed omissions might be the result of “urban-rural”, “south-north”, “indoor-outdoor”, and “generalisation” biases. See the publication here. Blog post on addressing policy blind spots can be found here.
The project developed a tailored postal questionnaire and collected data in Finland, Iceland and Sweden. The focused on mobility space and the impact of outdoor environmental conditions on healthy ageing. Over 800 participants 70 years or older answered the survey in 2024. Publications upcoming.
More news about the project: project mid-term meeting in 2024, methodology meeting in 2023, project received funding.
Research groups
Agneta Larsson
Steinunn Arnars Ólafsdóttir
