Assessing Age-Friendly Community Progress: What Have We Learned?

Abstract The Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities has grown steadily over the past decade across the United States, however surprisingly little is known regarding their accomplishments to date. We utilized content analysis to assess the progress reported by American age-friendly communities (n = 30) that joined by end of year 2015 using the Age-Friendly Community Evidence-based Tool with expanded program evaluation measures including health equity as defined by the World Health Organization. We employed deductive analytic techniques to assess reported community performance in eleven thematic areas across the range of structures and processes that characterize age-friendly efforts. We found strong evidence in the areas of leadership and governance, harnessed resources, application of age-friendly framework, and in multisector collaboration as well as reported provisions. All of the communities reported health equity aims, particularly in promoting accessible physical environments and social inclusion efforts. Our analysis further revealed areas for continued improvement.

a 14-day period, 1,190 trips were recorded by older adults and 71.3% of these trips were completed through driving their own personal vehicles.Participants designated 84.5% of trips as important and 72% of the trips improved their mood.Individual (physical and cognitive functioning, cost, time), environmental (lighting, sidewalk conditions, traffic, location of bus stops, weather), and behavioral (no history of bus use, peer to peer information sharing, tracking led to future planning) barriers and facilitators to alternative transportation use such as riding the bus, walking and biking were identified.

ASSESSING AGE-FRIENDLY COMMUNITY PROGRESS: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
Kathy Black, 1 and Patricia Oh, 2 1.University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee, Florida, United States, 2. UMaine Center on Aging, Bangor, Maine, United States The Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities has grown steadily over the past decade across the United States, however surprisingly little is known regarding their accomplishments to date.We utilized content analysis to assess the progress reported by American agefriendly communities (n = 30) that joined by end of year 2015 using the Age-Friendly Community Evidence-based Tool with expanded program evaluation measures including health equity as defined by the World Health Organization.We employed deductive analytic techniques to assess reported community performance in eleven thematic areas across the range of structures and processes that characterize age-friendly efforts.We found strong evidence in the areas of leadership and governance, harnessed resources, application of age-friendly framework, and in multisector collaboration as well as reported provisions.All of the communities reported health equity aims, particularly in promoting accessible physical environments and social inclusion efforts.Our analysis further revealed areas for continued improvement.

AGE-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES AND AGING IN PLACE: FINDINGS FROM LATENT PROFILE ANALYSIS
Seon Kim, 1 Kyeongmo Kim, 2 and junpyo kim, 3 1.Virginia commonwealth university, Richmond, Virginia, United States, 2. Virginia Commonwealth University, Henrico, Virginia, United States, 3. Gyeongsang National University, Jinju-si, Kyongsang-namdo, Republic of Korea Older adults prefer to live in their current home or community and 'Aging in place' has been shown to reduce the cost of caring for older adults and help their successful aging.Although age-friendly communities (AFC) initiatives have been helpful to aging in place, little has been known about the relationship between the types of AFC and aging in place.Using the 2017 AARP Age-Friendly Community Survey, we included 1,079 adults aged 65 or older.We measured aging in place as 'move to a different community', 'move into a different residence within your current community', and 'stay in your current residence', and included eight AFC constructs.We identified the type of AFC using Latent Profile Analysis: low-friendly, mid-friendly, and high-friendly.We also ran multinomial logistic regression to examine whether the types of AFC were associated with aging in place.Of the total participants, 26.0% lived in the low-friendly community, 23.7% in the mid-friendly community, and 50.3% in the high-friendly community.Older adults living in the highfriendly community were more likely to stay in the current residence (64.7%) than those in the low-friendly (47.1%) (χ2=28.680,p<.001).Also, older adults living in the lowfriendly community (OR=3.05,p<.001) and the mid-friendly community (OR=1.42,p<.10) were more likely to move to a different community compared to those living in the highfriendly community.This result suggests that it is important to build an AFC to promote aging in place.For the growing number of older adults' lives, policymakers should consider expanding the AFC initiatives.

HOME AND COMMUNITY FEATURES, PERCEIVED AGE-FRIENDLINESS, AND INTENTION TOWARD AGING IN PLACE Yeon Jin Choi, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States
Promoting age-friendliness of communities and supporting aging in place (AIP) are of great importance in aging societies.However, little is known about the mechanism linking home and neighborhood features, older adults' global assessment of community, and their willingness to age-in-place despite the importance in developing policies and interventions.This study used the 2015 AARP Age-Friendly Community Survey, which includes 66 home and neighborhood features under the eight domains specified by the WHO's Age-Friendly Cities Guidelines.A series of linear regression models were estimated to examine the interrelationship between the availability of age-friendly features in eight domains, perceived age-friendliness of community, and intention toward AIP.Overall, a greater availability of agefriendly features was positively associated with perceived age-friendliness of community and AIP intention.The relationship between age-friendly features and AIP intention was mediated by perceived age-friendliness of community (50.3% to 96% of the total effects).When perceived age-friendliness of community was introduced to models, the direct effects of housing, outdoor spaces and buildings, and transportation domains remained significant.Findings suggest that a greater availability of age-friendly features influence older adults' perception on their community, leading to the development of a desire to age-in-place.Domains of housing, outdoor spaces and buildings, and transportation may be the most importance features in promoting age-friendliness of community and the key determinants of aging-in-place.Policy makers and practitioners may need to prioritize promoting age-friendly built environment before social environment in building age-friendly communities.

OLDER ADULTS' PERCEPTIONS OF SMART CITY INITIATIVES TO AGE IN COMMUNITY
Jongwoong Kim, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States This project explores older American adults' perceptions of smart city initiatives for them to "age in community" particularly in the northeast region.As the U.S. population Innovation in Aging, 2021, Vol. 5, No. S1