"Mobilità, trasporto pubblico e Internet per un invecchiamento sano"

The thesis analyses the key topic of healthy ageing that is gaining day by day more attention as result of the demographic trends characterizing our society. It focuses on three ways, analysed in the three main chapters, through which the well-being and quality of life of the elderly people can be substantially elevated. The framework of health ageing includes a variety of relevant domains. Nevertheless, in the current research the focus is shed on the mobility, the public transport and the technology as critical enablers of independent living and community engagement for the elderly. The first chapter presents the wider context and motivations behind the selection of this specific research topic and stresses that the ageing of the worldwide population is a matter of urgency for the policymakers. The first half of the second chapter is dedicated to the illustration of some basic background notions of elderly mobility (i.e. terminology, theoretical models and relationships with wellbeing/QoL). Additionally, the second half, gathering multidisciplinary evidence, reviews systematically the literature about the importance of mobility in later life. The third chapter examines a crucial facilitator of the elderly mobility, i.e. the public transport system. Initially, it is introduced in a narrative way the position of the public transport in the life of the elderly people, as it has been presented so far in the scientific literature. Then, special attention is paid on the empirical association between the local public transport systems and the health status of the Italian older people. At the end of the chapter, there are presented some existing public transport policies for the elderly transport needs throughout the world. The fourth chapter pays particular attention on the use of the Internet by the Italian older adults over 60 years old. We analyse empirical data about various online activities that are performed digitally by the elderly adults, and also, we sketch latent groups (classes) with similar online activity profiles, controlling for important socioeconomic variables. The thesis concludes with the discussion of the main findings, underlining its innovative contribution to the scientific knowledge and providing guidance for future research contributions.