Globally, the population proportion of older adults is increasing and is projected to ascend for decades to come. As these demographic shifts occur, societies will need to adapt to afford citizens the highest quality of living at sustainable costs. First and foremost is maintaining older populations that are free from excess disease and healthcare burden. Implicit in the aging in place framework is the assumption that independent community living is preferred by society over institutionalized aging. Furthermore, for society to adapt to new aging demographics, aging in place should be the desired norm across the greatest proportion of the population and not limited to only the affluent. Such a framework would, arguably, provide the most benefit to the largest population. The greatest challenges for achieving the goal of aging in place would be expected to be found among economically disadvantaged populations, particularly among ethnic and racial minority groups. Furthermore, these populations have unique strengths, weaknesses, and preferences that provide enough variation to require nuanced approaches to affect the goal of aging in place. In this chapter, we focus on Latinos who are projected to become an increasingly important segment of the U.S. population, but are also faced with economic and social disadvantages that present important challenges. Additionally, we focus on three domains in this review: (1) health, medical and social services; (2) social support systems; and (3) community context.
