Mobility of older people and their quality of life

Population ageing will give rise to a substantial increase in the numbers of older people in society. Quality of life in old age is related to mobility, although the relationship is not clear, in part because the concept of mobility is not well defined. It is argued that it would be attractive to develop an operational concept of mobility, to allow the measurement of a group of benefits associated with individual movement which extend beyond those normally taken into account in travel and transport economics and modelling. This approach would be particularly worthwhile for investigating the loss of mobility with increasing age and the impact this has on quality of life, and for assessing the impact of measures aimed at enhancing the mobility of older people.