ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2025
Spatial Mobility Change Among Older Chinese Immigrants During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Physical, Social, and Virtual Environmental Factors.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Smartphone technology, social network maintenance, and social participation among Mandarin-speaking older immigrants in Canada.The Gerontologist · 2026Article
- A Comparison of Chinese and Korean Older Adult Immigrants' Transnational Healthcare Practices in Toronto, Canada: A Mixed-Methods Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVast spatial mobility changes happened globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, profoundly affecting older adults' well-being and active aging experience. This study aims to examine how the virtual environment and cyberspace, in conjunction with the physical and social neighbourhood environments, influence outdoor activities and spatial mobility for older immigrants.
methodsFour online focus groups were conducted with 25 older Chinese immigrants aged 65 and over in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada. The focus groups explored coping strategies during the pandemic and spatial mobility patterns related to different activity types such as grocery shopping, leisure activities and physical exercises, social and familial activities, and healthcare. Qualitative thematic analysis was conducted guided by the neighbourhood and health theoretical framework.
resultsThe overall engagement of older Chinese immigrants in various types of outdoor activities declined drastically and the spatial mobility pattern was complex. This change was shaped largely by the intersecting physical/built (e.g., residential conditions, access to public spaces), social (e.g., social support, interpersonal cohesion) and virtual (e.g., online communities and internet-based resources) environmental factors, as well as individual risk perceptions towards COVID-19 and public health interventions during the pandemic.
conclusionsVirtual environment emerged as an important domain that compensates for the heavily reduced spatial mobility of the group during the pandemic. It functioned as a vital channel for older Chinese immigrants to sustain the necessary leisure, social, and healthcare-related activities and maintain well-being during the pandemic. The study provides implications for addressing neighbourhood-level factors in policymaking and implementing initiatives to enhance active ageing experience of older Chinese immigrants.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.