Characterizing Older Adults' Travel Behaviour and Unmet Needs: Findings from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

Abstract

This study provides researchers, practitioners, and policy makers with a profile of older adults' travel behaviour and the older adult population that reports unmet travel needs. In addition, we quantified associations between reporting an unmet travel need and measures of health and social connectedness. Data came from the second follow-up survey of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, collected from 2018 to 2021 (n = 14,167). Nine in ten (90.2%) older adults aged 65 years and older indicated that driving is the main way they get around. Older adults with an unmet travel need were more likely to be women, have lower household incomes and education levels, and have a mobility limitation. People with an unmet travel need had 2.7 times the odds of reporting fair or poor general health (OR = 2.66, 95% CI: 2.19, 3.22) and 3.1 times the odds of feeling socially isolated (OR = 3.10, 95% CI: 2.57, 3.72) compared to those without an unmet need.