Age–Friendly Cities Features From the Elderly’s Perspectives Underscoring “Community Support and Health Services”

Abstract

Background: The 21st century is characterized by two challenges; 1) Urbanized population, 2)\rAgeing population. In this regard, the Iranian old population ages over 60 years is expected to\rgrow rapidly. Improving the elderly's quality of life is one of the challenges for policymakers\rand achieving this goal is accessible by designing accurate plans. In this way, WHO has initiated\ra global project to define “age- friendly cities.” This study aims to evaluate the criteria of age–\rfriendly cities from the elderly’s perspectives.\rMethods: This cross-sectional study employed interview technique on 400 older adults\rselected by stratified sampling method. The samples attended four community health centers.\rDemographic information of participants was collected and the abbreviated mental test, along\rwith age-friendly cities checklist were administered, too. Data was analyzed by descriptive and\rinferential statistics using SPSS 20 (P<0.05).\rResults: In this study, 53% of participants were female and 47% were male. The majority of\rparticipants (56.8%) were in the age range of 60-70 years. Most participants (59.8%) passed\relementary and high school. The mean score of “community support and health services,” from\rparticipants' perspectives was 26.82, which was lower than the mean score of the tool (42).\rThe variables of "housekeeping" and the average of "outdoor spending time" (1-3 h) had the\rhighest relationship with the elderly’s perspectives on “community support and treatment-health\rservices.”\rConclusion: Based on the results, welfare-cultural planning according to the older adults'\rperspectives and a creative collaboration among health policymakers and other organizations\rinvolved in ageing issues must be emphasized to empower the criteria of age-friendly cities.