The safe and leisurely walking as self-regulation for older pedestrians

Purpose: We adopted SOC theory (the model of selective optimization with compensation) as a framework for self-regulation for elderly drivers. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether this can be applied to the safe and leisurely walking of elderly pedestrians. Method: A total of 531 people were asked to freely answer questions about what they do before and during walking to compensate for the decline in their ability to walk safely due to declines in mental and physical function. Participants were also asked about their driving frequency, gender, and age. Next, safe and leisurely walking was classified on an Excel sheet using the framework of SOC model.Results and Discussion: Safe and leisurely walking was broadly categorized into seven categories: selection before walking, preparation before walking, daily preparation, walking style, places to pass, caution against tripping and falling, and caution/confirmation. This result shows that the SOC theory can be applied to the safe and relaxed walking of elderly pedestrians. However, the classification was slightly different from that of drivers, for example,there was less selection and more preparation. Contrary to expectations, no age differences were found in the classification distribution or execution rate of safe and leisurely walking.This may be because, for older people, self-regulation when walking is not as important as self-regulation when driving. Or because it is difficult for elderly people to respond to free descriptions, so the number of descriptions of execution did not increase. Key words: older pedestrians, self-regulation, safe and leisurely walking, SOC model