The trajectory of aging is profoundly impacted by the physical and social environmental contexts in which we live. While “top–down” policy activities can have potentially wide impacts on such contexts, they often take time, resources, and political will, and therefore can be less accessible to underserved communities. This article describes a “bottom–up”, resident-engaged method to advance local environmental and policy change, called Our Voice, that can complement policy-level strategies for improving the health, function, and well-being of older adults. Using the World Health Organization’s age-friendly cities global strategy, we describe the Our Voice citizen science program of research that has specifically targeted older adults as environmental change agents to improve their own health and well-being as well as that of their communities. Results from 14 Our Voice studies that have occurred across five continents demonstrate that older adults can learn to use mobile technology to systematically capture and collectively analyze their own data. They can then successfully build consensus around high-priority issues that can be realistically changed and work effectively with local stakeholders to enact meaningful environmental and policy changes that can help to promote healthy aging. The article ends with recommended next steps for growing the resident-engaged citizen science field to advance the health and welfare of all older adults.

Walking speed is a key input for various traffic engineering applications. This paper presents the results of research conducted over 18 months to understand the difference between the normal and the crossing walking speeds of pedestrians at signalized intersections and to determine the effect of seasonality on walking speed, taking into account age and gender. For the purposes of this paper, normal walking speed is the speed at which pedestrians walk without needing to cross an intersection, and crossing walking speed is that at which pedestrians walk when they are crossing a signalized intersection. The research found that in all cases the normal walking speed is less than the crossing walking speed. It also found that younger pedestrians walk faster than older pedestrians, regardless of the season and gender, and females walk slower than males, regardless of the season and age. Furthermore, both younger and older pedestrians have a greater normal walking speed in summer than in winter but a lower crossing walking speed in winter than in summer. In addition, the research also found that by use of a design value of 1.2 m/s (4.0 ft/s), as recommended in the current Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, nearly two-thirds of older pedestrians would be excluded in the design process on the basis of their normal walking speed and about 40% would be excluded on the basis of their crossing walking speed. The design value of 1.2 m/s (4.0 ft/s) excludes nearly one-third of younger pedestrians on the basis of their normal walking speed and about 10% on the basis of their crossing walking speed.

Tibialis anterior muscle biopsies from moderately active men and women (21–30 yr; n= 30) were examined to determine potential gender differences in capillarization. The fiber type proportions [type I (T1) ∼73%] were unaffected by gender. The men (M) had significantly ( P < 0.001) larger fibers than the women (W), with a greater gender effect for type II (T2) fibers ( P < 0.001). The M and W had similar capillary densities (CD ∼390 capillaries/mm²), but the capillaries-to-fiber ratio (C/F) was higher in the M (M = 2.20 ± 0.35, W = 1.66 ± 0.32; P < 0.01). Capillary contacts (CC) were higher in T2 than T1 for the M ( P < 0.01), but not W, and M had greater CC ( P < 0.001). Both fiber area per capillary (FA/C) and fiber perimeter per capillary (FP/C) indicated that T1 fibers had greater capillarization than T2 fibers ( P < 0.001). There were no gender differences in T1 FA/C and T2 FA/C or T1 FP/C, but a gender difference existed for T2 FP/C (M = 60.5 ± 10.9, W = 70.6 ± 13.4; P < 0.01). The gender difference for C/F could be explained by fiber size; however, the physiological implications of the difference in T2 FP/C remains to be determined. In conclusion, despite gender differences for fiber size, overall, capillarization was similar between the men and women.

Objective. We set up this study to determine the predictive value of approaches for which a statistical association with driving performance has been documented. Methods. We determined the statistical association (magnitude of association and probability of occurrence by chance alone) between four different predictors (the Mini-Mental State Examination, Trails A test, Useful Field of View [UFOV], and a composite measure of past driving incidents) and driving performance. We then explored the predictive value of these measures with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and various cutoff values. Results. We identified associations between the predictors and driving performance well beyond the play of chance (p < .01). Nonetheless, the predictors had limited predictive value with areas under the curve ranging from .51 to .82. Conclusions. Statistical associations are not sufficient to infer adequate predictive value, especially when crucial decisions such as whether one can continue driving are at stake. The predictors we examined have limited predictive value if used as stand-alone screening tests.