A global ageing population presents opportunities and challenges to designing urban environments that support ageing in place. The World Health Organization's Global Age-Friendly Cities movement has identified the need to develop communities that optimise health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. Ensuring that age-friendly urban environments create the conditions for active ageing requires cities and communities to support older adults’ rights to access and move around the city (‘appropriation’) and for them to be actively involved in the transformation (‘making and remaking’) of the city. These opportunities raise important questions: What are older adults’ everyday experiences in exercising their rights to the city? What are the challenges and opportunities in supporting a rights to the city approach? How can the delivery of age-friendly cities support rights to the city for older adults? This paper aims to respond to these questions by examining the lived experiences of older adults across three cities and nine neighbourhoods in the United Kingdom. Drawing on 104 semi-structured interviews with older adults between the ages of 51 and 94, the discussion centres on the themes of: right to use urban space; respect and visibility; and the right to participate in planning and decision-making. These themes are illustrated as areas in which older adults’ rights to access and shape urban environments need to be addressed, along with recommendations for age-friendly cities that support a rights-based approach.

Self-reported health is a predictive measure of morbidity and mortality across populations. A comprehensive understanding of the factors that shape self-reported health among community-dwelling older adults, a growing population globally, is lacking. The aim of this review was to summarize the factors that are associated with self-reported health among this population and identify key areas for future research. Accordingly, we conducted a scoping review using the stage-wise framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley. We summarized 42 factors, as identified in 30 publications, and organized them into four categories. Key factors shaping self-reported health included the presence of chronic conditions and depressive symptoms. As the population of community-dwelling older adults continues to increase, there remains a need to understand how these identified factors shape self-reported health. To date, empirical research has been limited to observational and cross-sectional designs. There is a need to further explore these factors in longitudinal data.

The age-friendly cities and communities movement has focused on how to better support older adults to age well within urban environments. Central to ‘ageing well’ and ‘active ageing’ agendas is ensuring that older adults can participate in meaningful forms of social participation. The benefits of social participation in old age have been well documented, and research amongst community-dwelling older adults has explored some of the neighbourhood qualities that facilitate or impede such forms of engagement. However, understandings of how older adults construct and negotiate social participation within everyday urban environments have been largely unexplored. To address this gap, we present results from 104 interviews conducted with older adults living in three cities and nine neighbourhoods in the United Kingdom (UK). The findings explore three themes generated from the research: ‘constructing meaningful social participation in old age’, ‘negotiating access to social participation’ and ‘navigating home and community’. Across these themes, the paper describes how experiences of social participation in old age involve a number of inter-connected physical, psychological and social processes experienced by individuals across a range of environmental settings including the home, outdoor spaces and community facilities. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for practice, specifically in the delivery of age-friendly communities.

Background: Caregivers are often unprepared and overwhelmed with the responsibilities of providing care to stroke survivors, which can lead to negative physical and psychological effects. Purpose: To evaluate the impact of the Family Informal Caregiver Stroke Self-Management (FICSS) program on burden and life changes resulting from providing care among family caregivers of stroke survivors. Methods: A prospective pre-test and post-test design using quantitative and qualitative data was used to evaluate the program with a convenience sample of 42 caregivers. The four-module facilitated program consisted of small group-guided discussion. Quantitative evaluations were completed at baseline, 2 weeks and 6 months (post-intervention), and qualitative data were collected at 2 weeks and 6 months. Life changes and burden were measured using the Bakas Caregiving Outcome Scale (BCOS) and the Oberst Caregiving Burden Scale (OCBS), respectively. Results: The BCOS scores increased consistently over time, showing significant differences at 6 months compared with 2 weeks (mean difference: 5.29, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.30-10.28, p=0.04) and baseline (mean difference: 7.58, 95% CI: 2.92-12.23, p=0.001). The OCBS time scores decreased consistently over time, showing a significant difference at 6 months compared with baseline (mean difference: −5.20, 95% CI: −0.96 to −9.44, p=0.02). The OCBS difficulty scores fluctuated over time, resulting in no overall difference from baseline to 6 months. Qualitative themes were consistent with the positive quantitative findings. Conclusion: Study results suggest that the FICSS program may result in reduced caregiver burden and improved life changes resulting from providing care.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination of bone surfaces from the Pleasant Lake mastodon, excavated in southern Michigan, documents features indicative of butchery. These features are identified by comparison with modern bones modified by human and natural processes. We report new studies of (1) marks made by bone tools during removal of meat from and disarticulation of carcasses and (2) use wear developed on bone tools. We also apply previously developed criteria for recognizing stone tool cutmarks and stages in the burning of bone. The Pleasant Lake site, dated to between 10,395 ± 100 and 12,845 ± 165 b.p., provides compelling evidence of mastodon butchery and bone tool use. Another site, near New Hudson, Michigan, provides replication of much of this evidence. Together these sites offer new examples of patterns of bone modification and extend the geographic and temporal representation of the much discussed, but still controversial, late Pleistocene bone technology.

There is growing interest in how enterprises based on co-operative values can help to meet needs relating to welfare and re-energise public services. The objective of this article is to examine critically the intersection of personalised adult social care services and the co-operative tradition, which emphasises mutual aid and value-led enterprise. We do this by retelling the story of personalisation through a co-operative lens, and ground this reading in case studies of two new co-operative enterprises that were supported under a Department of Health programme in England (2006–2009) intended to demonstrate how personalised adult social care could be extended by developing collaborative, co-operative organisational forms.