Community is a powerful influence on our health. Location can control access to health providers, bring about language barriers, restrict transportation, even influence healthy behavior. A growing body of research links our social and physical communities to our physical and mental well-being in ways that often overshadow the best efforts of health care.
Thomas R. Prohaska, Ph.D., co-director for the Center for Research on Health and Aging at the Institute for Health Research and policy and professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois – Chicago, discussed ways that community involvement can improve healthy aging for older adults. See his presentation.
