ABSTRACT
Keywords: older adults, private home, cohousing, assisted living, healthy aging, COVID-19 pandemic THE IMPACT OF OLDER ADULTS' LIVING ENVIRONMENT ON THEIR HEALTHY AGING IN PLACE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel Coronavirus [SARS-CoV-2], which causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease, a public health emergency on March 11, 2020 (Government of Canada, 2021;Nascimento, 2020). The research question was, "how does older adults' living environment promote their healthy aging in place during the COVID-19 pandemic?" LITERATURE REVIEW Multiple factors, including an individual's composition, physical environment, social interaction, independence, cognitive/mental health, mobility, transportation, services such as recreational opportunities, healthcare and information work together to impact older adults' healthy aging (Bigonnesse, 201 7;Puplampu, Matthews, et al., 2020). Healthy aging is a multidimensional construct that indicates the older adult is doing well;it can be defined as promoting and optimizing the health of an older adult by managing chronic diseases, ensuring cognitive, physical, and mental health, facilitating social engagement and resilience, independence, safety, support and services from the community (Batsis et al., 2021;Government of Canada, 201 6;Lock & Belza, 201 6;Pac et al., 2019). Housing for older adults plays a key role in their healthy aging, which became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic as long-term care facilities in Canada became high-risk settings and sources of outbreaks and deaths (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020).