Category(s):
Health
Status: Closed
Principal: Trevor Hanson
Project Number: P0093
Year Approved: 2022
Driving is often the only transportation option for older adults (age 65+) in New Brunswick. While the health effects of aging can make it more challenging for older adults to drive independently, these effects can be associated with an increased need to access healthcare. There is currently a limited understanding of older adult transportation demands for healthcare and with an aging population provincially, it is unclear whether friends and family or existing organized alternatives (such as Volunteer Driver Programs) are positioned to meet this demand.
This research extends previous work at UNB on the feasibility of using health data for transportation planning purposes to now look at healthcare data to understand the temporal characteristics associated with these records, such as healthcare access by time of day, day of week and month of year. This study is expected to provide results that can be used to support the development of health transportation policy in New Brunswick, including the development of non-emergency medical transportation alternatives.
