Walking barriers in older age: A comparison of perceived and measured conditions

Walking plays a key role in maintaining the spatial mobility of many older adults and enables them to perform everyday activities. Their mobility, however, is often constrained by external environmental factors. Despite this, significant discrepancies remain between perceived and objectively measured barriers. This study aims to evaluate the extent to which objective indicators align with older adults' subjective perceptions of walking conditions and to identify the most suitable ways to operationalize these indicators. Using questionnaire data collected from older adults in two mid-sized Czech cities—Ostrava and Hradec Králové—five key factors influencing the propensity to walk were analyzed: staircases/curbs, slope/elevation, traffic, noise, and people causing concern. Subjective assessments of these factors were compared with corresponding objective indicators using ordinal regression and random forest modelling. The tested objective indicators along walking routes included the density and intensity of staircases, average longitudinal gradient, proportion of flat terrain, total elevation change, average and weighted average traffic intensity, average noise intensity, and several crime-related measures (number and density of crimes and offences, indices of overall crime, violent crime, and selected types of offences). In addition, the effects of age, sex, health problems, trip length, and city-level differences were examined. Among all indicators, noise and slope emerged as the strongest predictors of perceived walking difficulties, while offence density provided the greatest improvement in model accuracy compared with models excluding objective indicators. Individual- level factors showed weak associations between subjective and objective measures, with a few exceptions: health problems significantly influenced perceptions of staircases, while gender and health status showed limited effects on perceived insecurity, and age was significant in the perception of slope. Significant intercity differences were also identified in the perception of staircases, traffic, slope, and insecurity. Finally, the study recommends selected objective indicators as the most suitable for operationalizing five key walking barriers and for informing urban policies aimed at improving walkability for older adults.