{"id":1709,"date":"2026-03-20T08:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/?p=1709"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:05:11","slug":"protocol-health-related-determinants-of-internal-migration-among-older-adults-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/2026\/protocol-health-related-determinants-of-internal-migration-among-older-adults-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Protocol: Health-Related Determinants Of Internal Migration Among Older Adults In Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Protocol: Health-Related Determinants Of Internal Migration Among Older Adults In Canada\n <\/h1>\n \n \n \n\n

Ana Christina Murta Collares, Tomoko McGaughey, Dana Simpson, Paul Peters<\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

This project aims to map existing research on the internal migration, spatial mobility or residential relocation of older adults in Canada. It focuses especially on the determinants of internal migration between urban and non-urban regions of Canada that are motivated or driven by health, health care needs, or other health-related reasons reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This protocol has been registered with Open Science Foundation<\/strong>: https:\/\/osf.io\/6e8xa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasing life expectancy and declining birth rates have led to increases in the median age for many countries, including Canada. In this context, preparing for and meeting the needs of an aging population is a growing challenge [1]. While older age is not a direct indicator of poor health, older adults are disproportionally represented among those with chronic diseases and have a greater probability of suffering falls and injuries and having age-related decreases in immunity [2][3]. As such, they are more likely to be high users of the health system when compared to their younger counterparts [4][5]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problems in accessing health care for this age group are often exacerbated in areas with less healthcare resources [6][7]. Rural and remote regions, for instance, often contend with scarcity of services and difficulties in retaining health workers [8][9]. Rural communities in Canada have low population density and less diversified services compared to urban communities [10]. Additionally, compared to urban areas, they have been shown to have a trend of out-migration of young people, in-migration of older individuals [11], and consequently, a higher proportion of older adults [12]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing studies cite a wide array of motivations for older adults’ migration within Canadian borders, including health-related issues [13][14][15]. In Canada, usually this group\u2019s motivations to migrate include the search for lower cost of living, the wish to be closer to nature, or to live in age-friendly neighbourhoods after retirement [13]. Edmonston and Lee [13] identified health as one of the five most common reasons for the relocation of older adults. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This review seeks to quantify and describe research on the internal mobility of older adults in Canada for health-related reasons, with a special focus on relocations across the rural-urban axis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We use the terms \u201colder adults\u201d, \u201crural\u201d and \u201cinternal mobility\u201d and their synonyms to describe the different ways in which studies in the area define each of these concepts. The definition of \u201crural\u201d is complex and can be based on a variety of indicators, from idealized conceptions [16] to objective measures such as concentration of services and population density [17]. In Canada, rurality is often operationally defined as region with population density of less than 400 habitants per square kilometer [12], but many studies offer their own definitions. The concept of \u201colder adults\u201d as well does not have a clear definition in the literature, with initial age cut points ranging from approximately 45 to 65 years. \u201cInternal mobility\u201d is generally understood as residential relocation within national borders, but it can also include changes of residence within shorter distances such as the same neighbourhood, or the same city, for instance, and long-distance relocations or migrations. Different conceptualizations of \u201crural\u201d, \u201cmobility\u201d, \u201colder adults\u201d, as well as \u201chealth\u201d, will be categorized and described in the review. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A preliminary search of PROSPERO, MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and JBI Evidence Synthesis was conducted. The economic [18] and health-related [19] consequences of older adult migration were discussed in some reviews, as well as the specific healthcare challenges of aging in rural areas of Canada for older adults [20]. However, to our knowledge no current or in-progress scoping reviews or systematic reviews about the specific topic of health or healthcare influence on migration for older adults in Canada were identified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the disparities in the distribution of health services in Canada, especially between rural and urban areas, fully understanding the patterns of internal migration of older adults within Canadian borders is important for attaining a more equitable distribution of resources, and especially relevant for the promotion of aging-in-place policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This project aims to map existing research on the internal migration, spatial mobility or residential relocation of older adults in Canada. It focuses especially on the determinants of internal migration between urban and non-urban regions of Canada that are motivated or driven by health, health care needs, or other health-related reasons reasons. This protocol has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":1150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24,169,26,90,27],"tags":[171,170,77,166],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-migration","category-population-studies","category-rural-health","category-social-determinants-2","tag-aging","tag-migration","tag-rural-health","tag-social-determinsnts"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1710,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions\/1710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/determinants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}