고령자의 정주 실현을 위한 건강복지환경 구축방안 연구

A Study on Building Health/Welfare Environment for Settlement in Elderly: Focusing on Concept of Blue Zone

(Purpose) With the global aging of population, discussion to realize the Aging In Place, which allows elderly to spend old age in their current residence in healthy status by supporting the independent living of them are ongoing at the city, region, and village level. The purpose of this study was to propose a strategy to establish a health/welfare environments that realize a healthy settlement for the elderly by applying the concept of Blue zone where the health of the community are improved through close connection between individuals and communities and improvement of the physical environment and the cooperation of social organizations. (Design/methodology/approach) This study attempted to derive implications for establishing a health/welfare environment for the realization of a settlement for the elderly from the case studies of Korean projects to establish healthy environment based on the common purpose of promoting citizens health. As a part of the strategy to differentiate with previous similar projects, this study performed a case analysis with the principle of creating Blue zone, one of the advanced cases of global healthy village. (Findings) For the building of community where the elderly settle with no difficulties, the utilization of the existing infrastructure to ensure continuity rather than short-term project and linking through institutional support are needed. (Research implications or Originality) This study derived physical and social factors affecting healthy settlement and proposed a step-by-step strategy to realize a health/welfare environments for the elderly. A healthy settlement of elderly may be realized when a gradual and chain changes should be induced from a mid-long term perspective in the future related research and projects.