Age-friendly communities matter for older people’s well-being

AbstractThis study aims to identify relationships between age-friendly environments (interms of social and physical neighborhood attributes) and older people’s overall well-being, as well as the underlying instrumental goals to achieve overall well-being. A sampleof 945 community-dwelling older adults living in Rotterdam’s districts Lombardijen, LageLand/Prinsenland, Oude Westen, and Vreewijk was asked to complete a questionnaire in2013. A total of 588 (62%) responded. The majority (56%) of respondents was female,19% had low educational levels, 35% were married, and 85% were born in the Nether-lands. Mean age was 77.1±5.3 (range 70–93) years. Levels of age-friendliness and olderpeople’s ability to realize the instrumental goals to achieve overall well-being variedtremendously among neighborhoods, with older people living in less age-friendly com-munities reporting lower levels of well-being. These differences in well-being resultedespecially from differences in affection, behavioral confirmation, and comfort. Higher-educated older persons were more critical regarding the domains civic participation,transportation, and communication and information in their neighborhoods, suggesting asocioeconomic gradient in the perceived lack of neighborhood attributes facilitating agingin place. Currently, physical and social neighborhood attributes enabling aging in placeseem to satisfy the needs for affection, behavioral confirmation, and comfort in some, butnot all, neighborhoods. Levels of age-friendliness in neighborhoods did not explain dif-ferences in opportunities for older people to realize the instrumental goals of status andstimulation.

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