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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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How 'age-friendly' are rural communities and what community characteristics are related to age-friendliness?
— The case of rural Manitoba, Canada | | Author(s) | Verena H Menec, Louise Hutton, Nancy Newall |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 35, no 1, January 2015 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, January 2015 |
| Pages | pp 203-223 |
| Source | journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Neighbourhoods, communities etc ; Rural areas ; Attitudes to the old of general public ; Social surveys ; Canada. |
| Annotation | Since the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the concept of 'age-friendly' communities in 2006, there has been rapidly growing interest in making communities more age-friendly on the part of policy makers world-wide. So far, there is a paucity of research that has examined age-friendliness in diverse communities, particularly in rural communities. The main objective of the study reported was to examine whether age-friendliness varies across community characteristics, such as a population size. The study was based on surveys administered in 56 communities throughout Manitoba, a mid-Western Canadian province, in the context of a needs assessment process for communities that are part of the Age-Friendly Manitoba Initiative. A total of 1,373 individuals completed a survey developed to measure age-friendliness. Domains included the physical environment; housing options; the social environment; opportunities for participation; community supports and health-care services; transport options; and communication and information. Community characteristics were derived from census data. Multi-level regression analysis indicated that the higher the percentage of residents aged 65 or older, the higher the ratings of age-friendliness overall and, specifically, ratings of the social environment, opportunities for participation, and communication and information. Moreover, small communities located within a census metropolitan area and remote communities in the far north of the province emerged as having the lowest age-friendliness ratings. These findings suggest that communities are generally responsive to the needs of their older residents. That different results were obtained for the various age-friendly domains underscores the importance of considering age-friendliness in a holistic way and measuring it in terms of a range of community features. The study further highlights the importance of differentiating between degrees of rurality, as different patterns emerged for communities of different sizes and proximity to a larger urban centre. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-150619008 A |
| Classmark | RH: RL: TOB: 3F: 7S |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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