Are African Americans Aging in Place? Geospatial Analysis of the Naturally Occurring Retirement African Americans’ Communities in Chicagoland

Tekleab Gala^1, and Anita Holmes¹

¹Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences, Chicago State University 321 William Science Building, 9501S King Dr, Chicago, IL 60628, USA

Cite this paper

Tekleab Gala and Anita Holmes. Are African Americans Aging in Place? Geospatial Analysis of the Naturally Occurring Retirement African Americans’ Communities in Chicagoland. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2022; 10(3):113-123. doi: 10.12691/AJPHR-10-3-4

Abstract

The population of aging African Americans is growing every year, and so is its ratio to the working population. The main issue concerning aging African Americans is their post-retirement economic security and finding locations suited for their quality retirement. Hence, this study assessed settlement patterns of older African Americans in Chicagoland and relations with the patterns of African Americans of all ages and older Americans of all races. Accordingly, the older African American population, 65 years and above, represent 11% of the older Americans of all races. Moreover, in 291 census tracts, found in 4 of the 6 Chicagoland counties, significant clustering (i.e., P-value <0.05) of the higher percent older African American population is observed. This distribution is positively associated with the population of African Americans of all ages and older Americans of all races (i.e., P-value <0.05). Therefore, the settlement patterns of aging African Americans in Chicagoland follow a few attributes of Aging in place as well as local relocation to attain a better-quality retirement in some suburban neighborhoods.

Keywords

aging American, retirement planning, naturally occurring retirement communities (norcs), geographical information system, Chicago metropolitan area

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]	US Census Bureau. “Annual estimates of the resident population by sex, age, race alone or in combination, and Hispanic origin for the United States and states: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015.” US Census Bureau Population Division (2016). Release Date: June2017. Retrieved on Jan 20, 2019 from https://acl.gov/sites/default/files/Aging%20and%20Disability%20in%20America/2017OlderAmericansProfile.pdf.
[2]	Kirkham, Elyssa (2017). GoBankingRates, 1 in 3 Americans Has Saved $0 for Retirement Retrieved on Jan 27, 2017 from http://time.com/money/4258451/retirement-savings-survey/.
[3]	O’Brien, Ellen, Ke Bin Wu, and David Baer. “Older Americans in poverty: A snapshot.” Washington, DC: AARP Public Policy Institute (2010).
[4]	Desilver, Drew. “More older Americans are working, and working more, than they used to.” PewResearchCenter. www. pewresearch. org/fact-tank/2016/06/20/more-older-americansare-working-and-working-morethan-they-used-to/. Retrieved May 26 (2016): 2017.
[5]	Leonesio, Michael V., et al. “The increasing labor force participation of older workers and its effect on the income of the aged.” Soc. Sec. Bull. 72 (2012): 59.
[6]	Aka, Philip C., Chidera V. Oku, and Murna Habila. “Promoting Retirement Security for Low-Income Workers in Illinois: An Analysis and Lessons for Other States.” Akron L. Rev. 51 (2017): 367.
[7]	Eaton, Tim V., and Brianne Kellner. “Where to Retire? The Tax Implications of Geography in Retirement.” Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER) 13.3 (2015): 145-152.
[8]	Previll, Laura A. “Fostering Aging in Place:” Healthy Naturally Occurring Retirement Community” (H-NORC) Qualities in a Southwest Ohio Suburb.” (2012).
[9]	Charreire, Hélène, et al. “Identifying built environmental patterns using cluster analysis and GIS: Relationships with walking, cycling and body mass index in French adults.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 9.1 (2012): 1-11.
[10]	Rivera-Hernandez, Maricruz, Takashi Yamashita, and Jennifer M. Kinney. “Identifying naturally occurring retirement communities: a spatial analysis.” Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 70.4 (2015): 619-627.
[11]	Coutts, Christopher, Mark Horner, and Timothy Chapin. “Using geographical information system to model the effects of green space accessibility on mortality in Florida.” Geocarto International 25.6 (2010): 471-484.
[12]	Koziol B. and McCown K. (2017). Where You Live Makes All the Difference: An Opportunity Map of the Richmond Region Retrieved on Jan 27, 2017 from http://homeofva.org/portals/0/images/pdf/whereyouliivemakesallthedifferenceoppmapreport.pdf.
[13]	Kunene, N., William Ebomoyi, and T. S. Gala. “Scaling-up spatiotemporal dynamics of HIV/AIDS prevalence rates of Sub-Saharan African countries.” International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics 10.1 (2018): 1-15.
[14]	Hunley, Robert, and Tekleab Gala. “Spatial Patterns of African-American Population and Movement in Chicagoland.” population 2056: 2.
[15]	Kunene, N., M. Gella, and T. Gala. “Geographic controls of adult HIV/AIDS prevalence and their determinants for Sub-Saharan Africa countries.” American Journal of Public Health 5.4 (2017): 130-137.
[16]	Oshan, Taylor M., Jordan P. Smith, and A. Stewart Fotheringham. “Targeting the spatial context of obesity determinants via multiscale geographically weighted regression.” International journal of health geographics 19.1 (2020): 1-17.
[17]	U US Census Bureau. “Annual estimates of the resident population by sex, age, race alone or in combination, and Hispanic origin for the United States and states: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015.” US Census Bureau Population Division (2016).
[18]	[Holmes, Anita. Spatial Modeling of Naturally Occurring Retirement African Americans’ Communities in Chicagoland. Diss. Chicago State University, 2021.
[19]	Getis, Arthur, and J. Keith Ord. “The analysis of spatial association by use of distance statistics.” Perspectives on spatial data analysis. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010. 127-145.
[20]	Kunene, Nonkululeko Rejoice. Scaling up Spatiotemporal dynamics of HIV/AIDS Prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa. Diss. Chicago State University, 2016.
[21]	Anselin, Luc. “Local indicators of spatial association—LISA.” Geographical analysis 27.2 (1995): 93-115.
[22]	Mitchell, Andy. “Esri Press| The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis Volume 2| Spatial Measurements and Statistics.” (2005).
[23]	Chen, Vivian Yi‐Ju, et al. “Geographically weighted quantile regression (GWQR): An application to US mortality data.” Geographical Analysis 44.2 (2012): 134-150.
[24]	Vasovic, S. (2020). Spatial Analysis of Unemployment Disparities in Chicago (Doctoral dissertation, Chicago State University).
[25]	Lee, Sangho. “A Spatiotemporal analysis to identify Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities in Nebraska.” (2018).
[26]	Wiles, Janine L., et al. “The meaning of “aging in place” to older people.” The gerontologist 52.3 (2012): 357-366.
[27]	Epps, Fayron, et al. “Challenges to aging in place for African American older adults living with dementia and their families.” Geriatric Nursing 39.6 (2018): 646-652.
[28]	Childers, Christine Mary, et al. “But I've Always Lived Here. Evidence Informed Analysis on Aging in Place.” 2020 Combined Sections Meeting (CSM). APTA, 2020.
[29]	Wagner, Alexandra. “Aging in Place with Age-Related Cognitive Changes: The Impact of Caregiving Support and Finances.” Societies 11.2 (2021): 31.
[30]	Greenfield, Emily A., et al. “A tale of two community initiatives for promoting aging in place: Similarities and differences in the national implementation of NORC programs and villages.” The Gerontologist 53.6 (2013): 928-938.
[31]	Dupuis-Blanchard, Suzanne, et al. “Strategies for aging in place: the experience of language-minority seniors with loss of independence.” Global qualitative nursing research 2 (2015): 2333393614565187.
[32]	Hunt, Michael E., Linda J. Marshall, and John L. Merrill. “Rural areas that affect older migrants.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research (2002): 44-56.
[33]	Scommegna, Paola, Mark Mather, and Lillian Kilduff. “Eight demographic trends transforming America’s older population.” Population Reference Bureau (2018).
[34]	Siegler, Eugenia L., et al. “Community-based supports and services for older adults: A primer for clinicians.” Journal of geriatrics 2015 (2015).
[35]	Leviten-Reid, Catherine, and Alicia Lake. “Building affordable rental housing for seniors: Policy insights from Canada.” Journal of Housing for the Elderly 30.3 (2016): 253-270.
[36]	Satariano, William A., et al. “Mobility and aging: new directions for public health action.” American journal of public health 102.8 (2012): 1508-1515.
[37]	Masotti, Paul J., Robert Fick, and Kathleen O’Connor. “Healthy Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities: The Need for Increased Collaboration Between Local Public Health Agencies and Municipal Government.” Journal of Housing for the Elderly 24. 3-4 (2010): 249-266.
[38]	Hong, Andy, et al. “Linking green space to neighborhood social capital in older adults: The role of perceived safety.” Social Science & Medicine 207 (2018): 38-45.