ELDERLY HOUSING OPTIONS AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF ELDERLY SINGAPOREANS

Abstract

The ageing demographic trend in Singapore has wide-ranging implications on the housing provision for the elderly. To address the housing needs of the elderly, HDB has mainly encouraged the senior citizens to age in place, while providing alternative in the form of studio apartments to allow for independent ageing. However, both the existing stock of age-integrated housing and studio apartments has inherent problems that may compromise the quality of life of the elderly. Therefore, this paper attempts to compare both age-integrated and age-segregated housing in Singapore and determine their impact on the life quality of the elderly residents. Two main statistical techniques were employed in the study. They are namely paired sample t-test and binary logistic regression. After reviewing the extant literature and analysing the survey results of 400 elderly residing in age-integrated housing and stand-alone studio apartment developments, it was found that respondents living in the studio apartments experienced a lower quality of life. Further analysis reveals that that the poorer quality of life experienced by the studio apartment respondents is due to the residents experiencing dissatisfaction in “Psychological Well-Being”, “Relations with Family”, “Opportunities to Maintain or Establish Friendships” and “Liveliness within the Housing Environment”. On the other hand, “Relations with Family” and “Security within the Estate” are the significant factors that explain the better quality of life experienced by the age-integrated respondents These results suggest a need for policy makers to review the provision of stand-alone studio apartments for the elderly in Singapore. Additionally, more could be done to enhance the existing stock of age-integrated public housing to better allow the seniors to age in place.