To date, a range of qualitative and mixed-methods approaches have been applied to assess the age-friendliness of cities and communities. The Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) has been developed to fill a gap for a systematic quantitative method approach to evaluate baseline age-friendliness in cities and communities and then measure ongoing efforts to become more age-friendly, aligned with the model by the World Health Organization (WHO). As such, it offers a valid and valuable quantitative method for cities to assess age-friendliness. This paper presents the process and results of a study undertaken to test the validity and reliability of the AFCCQ for the Australian context. It is part of a broader cross-cultural project seeking to test the AFCCQ across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America to generate methodological insight and comparable data. Informed by consultation with local experts in population and ageing research, as well as with people aged 65 and over, the instrument proved reliable in the Australian context before being distributed to 334 older people in Greater Adelaide for validation. Results show that the AFCCQ-AU proved a valid and reliable tool for evaluating the age-friendliness of larger cities and communities in Australia. Overall, the total score indicated moderate-good satisfaction with the age-friendliness features of the Greater Adelaide Region with the domain of Housing scoring highest (highly satisfactory). Psychometric validation and cluster analysis led to the identification of five typologies of older people living in Greater Adelaide, characterised by distinct socio-demographic profiles and concomitant experiences and evaluations of age-friendliness. This Australian validation adds further weight to the role of the AFCCQ in being able to assess the age-friendliness of cities and communities across the WHO's Global Network for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. Used in combination with the rich and nuanced qualitative data at the local level, the tool has the ability to create significant outcomes for older people and their communities.
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The “Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: States of the Art and Future Perspectives”publication presents contemporary, innovative, and insightful narratives, debates, and frameworks based on an international collection of papers from scholars spanning the fields of gerontology, social sciences, architecture, computer science, and gerontechnology. This extensive collection of papers aims to move the narrative and debates forward in this interdisciplinary field of age-friendly cities and communities. CC BY-NC-ND Book CC BY Chapters © 2021 by the authors Original book at: https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-1226-6 (This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Feature Papers "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives" that was published in IJERPH)
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Numerous cities in the Russian Federation have joined the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Network for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities since 2011. In order to do quantitative evaluations of the age-friendliness of cities, the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) was developed in the Netherlands. The purpose of this study was to translate and test the validity and reliability of the AFCCQ for use in the Russian Federation, and to study the views on the age-friendliness of the city of Kazan in the Republic of Tatarstan from an intergenerational perspective. Data were collected in a survey. In total, 208 people from various age cohorts met the inclusion criteria to assess the psychometric validity. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the structure with nine factors. Overall, the people in Kazan experience the age-friendliness of their city as positive. The youngest and oldest generations demonstrated the most positive scores. Only for the domain of respect and social inclusion results were reversed. The Russian language version of the AFCCQ proved a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate age-friendliness of cities and communities in Russia. Data gathered through the instrument can be used as input for planning, implementing and further monitoring of age-friendly initiatives in the country.
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Cities across the globe are facing population ageing, which poses many unsolved challenges. Regional, national and European research strategies (including EU4Health) have a strong relation with healthy and active ageing, and stimulate the exchange of best practices to create age-inclusive societies across the continent. Over 1500 cities joined the Global Network for Age Friendly Cities and Communities of the World Health Organization (WHO), which follow a 5-year cycle of planning, implementation and evaluation in order to achieve goals. The Hague (2015) has been an active member of the Network. In the Western Balkans, only Tuzla (2023) is a member. Both the WHO and THUAS seek further expansion of their reach and want to build capacity in the Western Balkans, which is achieved through existing contacts with Mother Teresa University. The Institute for Social Activities in Skopje see THUAS’s age-friendly actions as a stepping stone for a better understanding of ageing well in their ethnically diverse city. Organisations in bordering countries have indicated their interest to join efforts during the annual Towards Sustainable Development Conference. They seek an extension to other countries of the Western Balkans that have previously largely been left out of the European research agenda. Therefore, The Age-friendly Balkans Connected Network seeks to (1) form regional knowledge and action eco-systems through capacity-building, and (2) provide cities with an instrument for a baseline assessment of their age-friendliness. For this purpose, we use the existing Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire that was developed at THUAS in 2020 and which has been validated in Albanian and Macedonian. The Network trusts that new national ecosystems and tools can contribute to future age-friendly actions and European grant applications. In the words of Mother Teresa (born in Skopje): “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
