Age-Friendly Community Interventions for Health and Social Outcomes: A Scoping Review

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 31;20(3):2554. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032554.

Abstract

To address the numerous challenges associated with aging, increased attention has been given to the development of age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC) to promote healthy aging and social participation. However, limited evidence exists for addressing both health and social needs through the AFCC framework. We address this gap by conducting a scoping review of the interventions that target both health and social outcomes within the purview of the AFCC framework. The results showed that many of the successful interventions used a partnership model and behavioral change theories to inform the program design and implementation. The results also indicated that social participation and engagement played a key role in making the interventions successful. However, the results revealed that the literature is dominated by person-focused approaches. Future research should focus more on evaluating environmental-focused interventions and develop a holistic framework that combines both person- and environment-based approaches to healthy aging.

Keywords: age-friendly cities and communities; age-friendly intervention; health outcomes; social outcomes.

Publication types

  • Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aging*
  • Cities
  • Humans

Grants and funding

The research was funded by the World Health Organization, grant number WPRO/2021-07/DSI_AGE/TN134823. The research was also partially funded by the University of Utah Center on Aging (COA) through the Innovations in Aging grant.