Our research

The AUT Centre for Active Ageing (ACAA) is committed to working with older people to live well, regardless of people’s capacities or places of residence. We are focused on enabling diverse, inclusive communities, participation in community and social life, liveable spaces and places, and negotiating health issues.

We have a large team consisting of experts across a range of fields. Our team of researchers regularly publishes articles in internationally renowned publications.

Current research projects

Diverse, inclusive communities

• *What are the experiences of older Chinese-speaking migrants in Auckland when accessing health and support services in New Zealand?
• *How can loneliness among older Chinese immigrants in New Zealand be measured and ameliorated?
• *What is the experience of being an older Filipino migrant in New Zealand?
• A hermeneutic analysis of Chinese, Indian and Korean late-life immigrants’ experiences of loneliness or social isolation.
• Spirituality in older adults living in residential care facilities in Nepal.

Negotiating health issues

• *How do the beliefs and expectations held by practitioners, and people living in New Zealand regarding the management of hip and knee osteoarthritis?
• What are the experiences of New Zealand migrants living with Mild Cognitive impairment?
• Valuing those supporting people living with cognitive decline
• What are the predictors of quality of life, participation, physical function, disability, depression and cognition in those in advanced age? The Life and Living in Advanced age: A Cohort- the Lilac study, Te Puawaitanga O Nga Tapuwae Kia ora Tonu.

Liveable spaces and places

• *How health care assistants manage their everyday work within aged residential care?
• *What is the process, and the outcomes of the transition of residents to a new dementia care by design village?
• The experience of older adults' everyday participation in their urban neighbourhood.
• The transition of Whare Aroha CARE residents to a new dementia-friendly village.

Community and social life

• *What is the experience of older adults participating in their urban neighbourhood?
• *What enables older people to grow old in communities where they live?
• *What are the strength and functional changes of a high-functioning, resistance-trained population of older adults in response to a very high load (VHL), resistance training intervention?
• What are the barriers and enablers to living in the Warkworth community?
• How do the ‘young old’, those aged 65 to 74, engage socially in a semi-rural setting?
• Identifying and ameliorating loneliness among Chinese late-life immigrants in New Zealand.

^{* Items denote postgraduate student projects}

Research Activity

Age Friendly Pacific Island Communities Policy Brief