Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST) ISSN: 2458-9403 Vol. 3 Issue 5, May - 2016 www.jmest.org JMESTN42351612 4903 The effects of selected urban environments on the autonomic balance in the Elderly – A pilot study Izhak Schnell 1 , Limor Dor 1 Emanuel Tirosh 2 1 Geography and Human Environment Dept. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel E-mail: schnell@post.tau.ac.il 2 The Hannah Khoushy child development center, Bnai Zion medical center and the Rappaport faculty of medicine the Technion- Israel institute of technology, Haifa, Israel Abstract— A group of Elderly was asked to travel in four urban environments in order to test the effects of a set of four environmental factors: noise, social load, thermal load and CO on their heart rate variability. We asked whether out of home trips in urban any urban environment is recommended regardless in of the environmental conditions outside home. We show that elderly are mainly vulnerable to environmental factors such as social and noise loads that affect their levels of HRV regardless of the type of place they visit including urban parks on the one hand and central city environments on the other one. We find also that although elderly HRV responses are deteriorating with age and reduction in health conditions, it is still a useful indicator of stress and risk for health. Most important it appears that social loads are the main environmental factor influencing HRV. This confirms studies about the vulnerability of elderly to stereotyping and social risks in public spaces and it shows that such fears have physiological effects on the elderly. INTRODUCTION The decrease in engagement with life outside home has been repeatedly demonstrated to be associated with increase in social isolation, and by thus, with negative effects on physical and mental health among the elderly (Nicolson, et al. 2012). The relationship between movement in out of home spaces, social contacts and health deterioration are reciprocal. On the one hand decline in physical functioning may lead to decrease in spatial mobility and increase in social isolation and on the other hand decline in social engagement and spatial mobility leads to deterioration in health (Avlund et al. 2002; Rosso et. al. 2013; Holwerda et al. 2014) Limitation on spatial mobility characterizes between one third and one half of the elderly over the age of 65 (Webber et al. 2010). Although the digital era increases possibilities for social interactions without any need for corporeal spatial mobility, corporeal movement has its own value and is important for the development and maintenance of social networks. Yet, this assertion needs further verification (North and Fiske, 2012; Nicholson et. al. 2012). Most studies regard the elderly physical and psychological health responsible for deterioration in their spatial mobility (Baker et al. 2003; Nimrod, 2007). Increasing number of studies argue that spatial mobility among the elderly is highly determined by the interplay between elderly physical and mental capabilities and the characteristics of the environment (Gagliardi et. al. 2007). These ecological studies argue that discrepancies between limitations in spatial mobility and the environment may increase stress in the elderly (Kahana et al. 2003). However, there is a shortage in systematic studies that focus on the relationship between mobility in urban environments with different environmental conditions and elderly health. During the last decade several studies highlight the risks posed on elderly in urban environments. These studies focus on elderly exposure to physical barriers (Seamon, 1981), air pollution and thermal load (Schwartz, 2005; Park, et. al. 2005; Adar, 2007). Furthermore, these studies tend to focus on the effects of one or two environ mental factors on elderly mobility and not on the combined effects of major environmental factors. In addition, the impact of noise and social loads on elderly are rarely studied. The impact of social load is particularly important due to elderly vulnerability to being stereotyped or exposed to violence. Several studies expose the prejudices younger people develop towards the elderly deterring elderly from reaching out of home spaces. (Martens et al. 2004; Palmore, 2005; Cathalifaud et. al. 2008; Bodner and Lazar, 2011). The majority of studies about the effects of human exposure to environmental factors on human stress measure stress in three alternative ways: 1. Subjective sense of discomfort (Fang et al, 2004). 2. Cognitive performance (Kaplan, 1995). 3. Physiological measure of the autonomic nervous system including heart rate variability (HRV) and at times also salivary Cortisol (Kurosawa, et al., 2007; Rashid and Zimrin, 2008; Van der Berg and Custers, 2011). Since stress affect the autonomic system a variety of human functions and physiological systems sub-served by this system are likely to be affected. A reliable measure of autonomic functions and consequently of the stress imposed on the organism is heart rate variability ( HRV), (Liew, 2015; Jonsson, 2007). Therefore, HRV analysis and specifically Low frequencies-high frequencies ratio (LF/HF) facilitates an ongoing assessment and documentation of stress response in human beings.