Neighbourhood environments and later life flourishing: A systematic scoping review

Enabling older people to live comfortably in their own neighbourhoods for longer, known as ageing-in-place, has become a policy priority to reduce pressures on health and social care systems amid global population ageing. However, research on place and health remains predominantly deficit-focused, emphasising illness and decline (e.g. frailty, depression, and anxiety). This review adopts a positive psychology perspective and a life-course framework to synthesise evidence on how neighbourhood environments support flourishing in later life, a multidimensional state encompassing happiness, life satisfaction, and meaning in life.

Searches were conducted across nine databases. Content analysis was used to synthesise findings, guided by an adapted version of Wahl, Iwarsson and Oswald's person-environment framework of ageing well. Risk of bias was assessed using the NHLBI Quality Assessment Tool.

From 3375 records, 52 studies met the inclusion criteria. Consistent positive associations were identified between neighbourhood physical characteristics (e.g. green space, littering) and social characteristics (e.g. ageism, social cohesion) and older adults' flourishing. Findings on the functional characteristics (e.g. service accessibility and transport) varied by service type and measurement approach. Compositional characteristics (e.g. age mix, socioeconomic status) significantly moderated person-environment interactions but remain underexplored. The evidence base overall is limited by reliance on cross-sectional data. Emerging evidence suggests that neighbourhood effects differ across young-old (50-64), old-old (65-79) and oldest-old (80 +) groups, highlighting the need for more life-course research to disentangle cumulative and temporal dynamics in person-environment interactions in later life.

Neighbourhoods play a crucial role in supporting older adults' flourishing, but evidence on causal pathways and life-course dynamics remains limited. The proposed integrative framework enhances conceptual clarity and provides a foundation for longitudinal research to guide place-based interventions for positive ageing.