title: Assessing Communities' Age-Friendliness: How Congruent Are Subjective Versus Objective Assessments?
abstract: The notion of age-friendliness is gaining increasing attention from policy makers and researchers. In this study, we examine the congruence between two types of age-friendly surveys: subjective assessments by community residents versus objective assessments by municipal officials. The study was based on data from 39 mostly rural communities in Manitoba, Canada, in which a municipal official and residents (M= 25 residents per community) completed a survey to assess age-friendly features in a range of domains, such as transportation and housing. Congruence between the two surveys was generally good, although the municipal official survey consistently overestimated communities' age-friendliness, relative to residents' ratings. The findings suggest that a survey completed by municipal officials can provide a reasonable assessment of age-friendliness that may be useful for certain purposes, such as cross-community comparisons. However, some caution is warranted when using only these surveys for community development, as they may not adequately reflect residents' views.
authors.affiliation: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada verena.menec@med.umanitoba.ca.
authors.forename: Verena H
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: Menec
authors.affiliation: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Nancy E G
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Newall
authors.affiliation: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nowicki
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada; D004779:Environment Design / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014186:Transportation
keywords: age-friendliness; age-friendly communities; community development; measurement; surveys