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The purpose of this paper is to periodize the history of the US senior market segment, a large, lucrative target market.

The paper uses a four‐step adaptation of an existing framework, periodizing the segment's history into three phases: independence phase, mid‐nineteenth century‐1935; growing affluence phase, 1935‐1965; and maturity phase, 1965 to present.

The senior market began with urbanization resulting from the industrial revolution. The growth of private pensions, two World Wars, a variety of governmental programs such as the GI Bill and Social Security and Medicare Acts, political power resulting from the establishment of groups such as the American Association of Retired Persons, and increasing stress on inclusiveness in marketing accelerated the growth of the market. As baby boomers age, the market is sure to grow in scope and market power.

Time and space limitations require that this paper focus on the senior market only in the USA, and analyze only broad activities, events, and trends.

This paper contributes to the study of marketing history and market segmentation in particular by analyzing the origins and growth of this very large and unique market segment – largely due to the fact that it currently represents about 12 percent of the US population, unique in that all Americans are or likely will be members. It illustrates the confluence of government policy, marketers' never‐ending drive to find new target markets via product differentiation, and the importance of demographic change.

Social isolation and loneliness are global issues experienced by many seniors, especially immigrant and refugee seniors. Guided by the five-stage methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley and more recently Levac, Colquhoun and O’Brien, the purpose of this paper is to explore the existing literature on social isolation and loneliness among immigrant and refugee seniors in Canada.

The authors conducted a literature search of several databases including: PubMed; MEDLINE; CINAHL; Web of Science; HealthStar Ovid; PschyInfo Ovid; Social Services Abstracts; AgeLine; Public Health Database, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library. In total, 17 articles met the inclusion criteria.

Based on the current literature five themes related to social isolation and loneliness emerged: loss; living arrangements; dependency; barriers and challenges; and family conflict.

Given the increasing demographic of aging immigrants in Canada, it is useful to highlight existing knowledge on social isolation and loneliness to facilitate research, policy and programs to support this growing population.

The population is aging around the world and it is also becoming increasingly diverse particularly in the high-income country context. Understanding and addressing social isolation is important for immigrant and refugee seniors, given the sociocultural and other differences.

Social isolation is a waste of human resource and value created by seniors in the communities.

The paper makes a unique contribution by focusing on immigrant and refugee seniors.

This paper links the literatures on the life-cycle hypothesis, homeownership, home equity and pensions. Empirically, the focus is on the EU and USA. The paper aims to explore the extent that seniors extract their home equity and discuss the financial instruments available for equity extraction.

The study uses data from the EU and USA to determine homeownership rates, house values and mortgage debt. With these values, the amount of seniors’ home equity is measured for each country. The usage of home equity extraction methods is reported and factors limiting their use are identified.

Seniors’ home equity is a substantial share of their total wealth. Estimates for 2013 are that their home equity equals about €5tn in the USA and over €8tn in large EU countries. The authors find that only a small share of seniors extracts their home equity. While there are supply side constraints in many countries, the evidence suggests that the cause of low extraction rates is the lack of demand. Various reasons for the lack of demand are discussed.

The increasing share of seniors in most countries’ population suggests that there will be increasing pressure on public pension systems. One among many options to address this issue is to impose a wealth test for eligibility, where wealth includes home equity. This study suggests that although home equity is substantial for many seniors, they are reluctant to access the funds.

The paper highlights the importance of home equity in the EU and USA and the factors that affect the primary methods of extraction.

This study examines how the lifestyle of senior citizens affects their choices of retirement communities. A survey was conducted among 256 potential customers of elderly housing, targeting citizens over 45 years old who were residents of Seoul, the capital city of Korea, at the time of the survey. Findings reveal that most respondents preferred a location based in proximity to Seoul, convenience to the suburbs, a pleasant surrounding environment, and physical equipment and facilities. Medical services and community services were also found to have an impact on preference for residency. Canonical correlation analysis between the factors of elderly lifestyle and selection attribute factors of senior housing facilities demonstrates various significant relationships with implications for developers.

Senior citizen falls are one of the highest-cost factors of healthcare within this population group. Various approaches for automatic fall detection exist. However, little is known about the seniors’ acceptance of these systems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the acceptance of automatic fall detection devices as well as the technological commitment and the health status in community-dwelling adults with a predefined risk of falling.

Seniors with a risk of falling were equipped with either an accelerometer or an accelerometer with an additional visual and optical fall detection system in a sub-group of the study population for a period of eight weeks. Pre- and post-study questionnaires were used to assess attitudes and acceptance toward technology.

In total, 14 subjects with a mean age of 75.1 years completed the study. Acceptance toward all sensors was high and subjects were confident in their ability to handle technology. Medical assessments showed only very mild physical and no mental impairments. Measures that assured subjects privacy protection were welcomed. Sensor technology should be as unobtrusive as possible.

Privacy protection and uncomplicated use of the fall detection equipment led to high acceptance in seniors with high-technical commitment and good health status. Issues to further improve acceptance could be identified. Future research on different populations is necessary.

Many of the existing senior living accommodation options in Malaysia are ill-suited to the needs and requirements of seniors as they age further. To establish best practice guidance to meet the housing needs for seniors, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of neighbourhood quality, locational and structural attributes on the likelihood of owning a retirement home among the young-old aged 60 to 74 years in Malaysia.

In this paper, 300 young-old retirees from Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were interviewed using purposive sampling. Only 240 were used for the analysis.

The results revealed that respondents are likely to own the retirement home which could support their overall health and well-being within a safe and supportive senior-friendly neighbourhood. Furthermore, respondents are willing to reside in the retirement home that is served with good access to amenities.

The likelihood of young-old seniors adjusting their housing disequilibrium situation is higher as long as the right housing attributes are incorporated into the retirement home.

The results of this paper would be very pertinent for the development of the physical planning guidelines on settlements and facilities for the elderly in Malaysia.

With the change in cultural values, the increasing life expectancy in senior adult population and improved household income in Malaysia, there is great potential for purpose-built senior housing projects for seniors who need help with activities of daily living, but desire to live as independently as possible.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the integration of industry 4.0 related technologies of telehealth within innovative housing models addressed to senior population, in order to facing the growing issue of a sustainable management of the population ageing.

A qualitative exploratory analysis of four case studies of senior cohousing facilities located in different countries was performed. The cases analysed were selected as pioneering cases in the adoption of innovative and economically sustainable organizational solutions.

The study made it possible to identify which are the common characters that successful experiences have highlighted. Although each facility needs to adapt to the social, cultural, demographic and economic context in which it is located, there are some recurring aspects, which have proved to be key success factors.

This research analyses only four cases. This suggests that the sample does not provide an exhaustive representation of the models adopted in this field. However, the study is an exploratory research and it can provide a basis for further analyses.

This study provides valuable indications for the design and management of senior cohousing facilities, as regards the services to be offered, the network of services and facilities that can be complementary to the residences, the activities to be conducted and organized, the degree of involvement of the elderly in the planning of activities and services. With regard to the adoption of telehealth-related technologies, the study provides indications on which new technologies resulting from the industry 4.0 revolution are going to be adopted, that is, remote surveillance, remote diagnostics and the use of sensors and video. These technologies, thanks to the artificial intelligence, can detect anomalies and provide predictive analyses on the behaviour and health of the elderly.

The study made it possible to identify the key success factors for senior cohousing facilities regardless of the characteristics of the context in which they are located. In addition, it provides a first analysis of the potential of telehealth-related technological solutions, paving the way for further studies aimed at assessing how, thanks to new technologies, the level of economic sustainability of senior cohousing solutions can be improved.

Despite the growth of the Internet, one area that marketers have not really discussed is the elderly's use of the Internet. Given the rapid growth of this population as well as the potential the Internet holds for them, it is a subject worth consideration. This paper discusses the use of the Internet by a national random survey of elderly consumers and the impact of attitude, innovation, and demographics on their use. This study shows that the elderly consumers have favorable intentions towards using the Internet; most learned to use the Internet on their own; and they preferred to learn more about the Internet if such classes were offered at convenient locations. Those seniors with higher levels of income are more willing to both use the Internet and purchase products online; while education levels positively impacted only Internet use. Finally, this paper provides implications for marketers and suggestions for future research.