Life satisfaction and age concentration of the local area

Data from a community sample of persons 60 years old and older were analyzed to determine if the concentration of older persons in the local area (operationally defined as census tracts) was related to the respondent's life satisfaction after controlling for the known effects of physical health, socio-economic status, social participation, and other microlevel variables. Results showed that the effect of age concentration is negative, but that this effect differs according to the frequency with which a respondent visits a close friend who lives outside the neighborhood and the number of voluntary associations to which the respondent belongs. The more frequently respondents visited outside the neighborhood, the greater the negative effect of age concentration. On the other hand, the more voluntary association memberships respondents had, the smaller the negative effect of age concentration.