Key Age-Friendly Components of Municipalities that Foster Social Participation of Aging Canadians: Results from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

This study thus aimed to identify key age-friendly components (AFC) best associated with the social participation of older Canadians. Secondary analyses were carried out using baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (n = 25,411) in selected municipalities (m = 110 with ≥ 30 respondents), the Age-friendly Survey, and census data. Social participation was estimated based on the number of community activities outside the home per month. AFC included housing, transportation, outdoor spaces and buildings, safety, recreation, workforce participatio n, information, respect, health, and community services. Multilevel models were used to examine the association between individual social participation, key AFC, and environmental characteristics, while controlling for individual characteristics. Aged between 45 and 89, half of the participants were women who were engaged in 20.2±12.5 activities per month. About 2.5% of the variance in social participation was attributable to municipalities. Better outdoor spaces and buildings (p <  0.001), worse communication and information (p <  0.01), and lower material deprivation (p <  0.001) were associated with higher social participation. Age was the only individual-level variable to have a significant random effect, indicating that municipal contexts may mediate its impact with social participation. This study provides insights to help facilitate social participation and pr omote age-frien...
Source: Journal of Urban Health - Category: Health Management Source Type: research