The Elderly and the City: Lack of Knowledge on Violence Perception and Consequences on Daily Life

3.1. Do the Elderly Live well in the Cities? Under which Conditions do the Elderly Live Poorly in the City?

In this framework of transition is impossible to say if the elderly live well in the cities. This question is probably not useful in this general proposition. There are no systematic comparisons between the conditions of elderly in cities and rural areas of same regions. The great mobility of populations in itself can introduce bias in cross-sectional studies.

The results of these researches are not univocal. Two extensive researches in Italy [11] and Brazil [14] showed the perception of a worse QoL in urban elderly. A vast search in Sweden found no differences [23]. Some researchers found discordant results between cities and countryside in elderly who had different perception of QoL. Researches in Japan [12] and U.S [9] found a better QoL in the cities; a study on a little Serbian sample [20] found no differences.

The limits are obvious. They are induced by transversal designs, by the different social e cultural conditions and the level of development of the area investigated in the city and countryside; by the different percentage of institutionalized elders (in cities and rural areas) who did not participate in the “community” household studies; by the cultural factors as determinants of adherence; by different adherence rates, usually lower in cities and often lower in the more disadvantaged neighborhoods; by the difference of accessibility to a home fixed telephone when searches were conducted on samples selected on telephone directories, or even conducted by telephone.

Prospective studies are at the beginning. A recent cohort survey conducted in New Zealand highlighted how the QoL and depressive symptoms were related to: house ownership, economic living standard, urban versus rural residence, length of residence, ethnicity, age, and household composition [26].

Studies on depressive and mood disorders in old age are most homogeneous concerning a condition worsening of elderly in the cities, at least in western societies as found by a German survey [27], by the whole results of the World Health Survey in Sao Paolo, Brazil [28] and by the results of urban versus rural elderly people from Sardinia, Italy [29].

Conversely, studies in China [30-32] and Vietnam [33] on whole population found in the recent past a different trend with risk for depression of all the people (and partially of elderly) of rural areas against those of urban ones. Nevertheless, a recent study has examined the relationship between different household registration statuses and depressive disorders. In 7409 older adults in China, authors found temporary rural-to-urban migrant people at high risk for depression, permanent rural-to-urban migrant people at risk for depression, and urban local citizen not at risk. In addition, elderly with changes in their residential status before age 16 were more likely at risk of depressive symptoms [34].

The results of such study therefore suggest that is likely a shift of people with high frequency of depression from a brief migratory experience in cities towards the return to villages. A phenomenon that has already been hypothesized in a study repeated over time in Sardinia [3, 35, 36]. Obviously, the cross sectional model allows to formulate causative hypotheses not to test them.

In general, all these researches may not be able to answer to questions but may suggest hypothesis on risk and protecting factors to be tested in well-equipped studies and with longitudinal designs [37]. For example, a good protective factor could be the fact of being “at home” and “in family” for a not totally autonomous elder, as reported by study in which it seems that phenomenon is more widespread in rural than in urban areas [11].

Ultimately, this step is necessary to reflect on what aspects need to be investigate and on which factors is possible to create a protective role.

3.2. City, Slums and Violence in the Perspective of the Elderly People: Why are Studies Missing?

About one third of the population of cities, and ever more in the megacities, lives in disadvantaged circumstances that are described as “slums”. Due to the impetuous flux of people to the cities this fraction is predicted to grow tremendously in the next years [38].

A stimulating environment could offer many opportunities to change their lives for people becoming to conditions of extreme poverty or war. The theory of goal striving stress [39] has been explicated as an apparently not favorable condition, for those who live in a site for generations, but could appear as offering riches and opportunities for people arriving from areas of greater deprivation.

But in a changing world, the adaptation has difficulties ever for the newcomers youngest, even more for older people who come from a rural world that has certainly slower pace, and also for who, on the contrary, already lived in suburban neighborhoods that are changing totally their own physiognomy.

On the other hand, it is incontestable that some, not all, cities have become the most dangerous places in the world. For example the U.S. homicide rate declined by nearly half (49%), from 9.3 homicides per 100,000 U.S. residents in 1992 to 4.7 in 2011, falling to the lowest level since 1963. However, some cities maintained rates of homicide over 50 per 100,000 (Saint Louis and Baltimore) or over 40 (Detroit and New Orleans). The same trend was found in Europe that is known as “the safest continent in the world”. However, also some European cities, such as Rotterdam in Holland or Lodz in Poland’s, show rate of homicides really over the average of the continent or the respective countries [40].

However, there is a total impressive lack of studies of how elderly live violence in the city and what consequences it has on their own life and autonomy.

It is paradoxical that some indications come from a study not specifically conducted on the elderly and not conducted in particularly deprived areas [41]. This study was carried out with the aim “to assess the effect of community economic development efforts on neighborhood residents’ perceptions on violence, safety, and economic benefits”. Six Pittsburgh neighborhoods, in which casinos and sport arenas were built with the objective of increase the economy, were involved. Thus, the study was “focused on evaluating interventions and policies designed to change community economic conditions or characteristics of the physical environment” [41]. Due to the choice of the sample (from telephone directories) and the method of conduction (by telephone), the study actually selected a sample composed in most of elders: actually it was a sample of over 60 years of average age and a proportion of inactive people at work over 60% compared to about 7% of the reference population (probably due to the high rate of retirement due to the large amount of old people). Both residents in the neighborhood with the entertainment arena and in the neighborhood with the casino felt there was an increase of criminality. In contrast, the crime decreased in both neighborhoods.

This strange result is only understandable if one takes into account that a sample of predominantly old people had difficulty adjusting to a change. Although, this change meant an increase in the number of jobs and economic benefits, the respondents themselves found it.

If this happens in suburbs rich and safe enough, it can only hypothesize what is perceived on security of elderly in depressed suburbs, with high rates of crime and an impressive increase in population from new arrivals with different cultures. This is a lack of knowledge that needs to be overcome.