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Summary
The research study is focused on the investigation of how older citizens perceive the age-friendliness of the cities within which they reside. A cross-sectional survey was conducted across a diverse sample of older citizens within the target communities. The researchers used the Age Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire to assess variations in social groups. The focus city was the Hague and among the aspects that were evaluated included involvement in society, community consultation, work histories, information, reverence, social integration, healthcare, and community support (van Hoof et al., 2022). The Hague is an ideal city for most older residents. The researchers evaluated the city’s outdoor spaces and municipality services and recorded the differences in age, sex, socio-economic situation, and dependence on mobility aids. The research findings demonstrate that older individuals have varied perceptions regarding the friendliness of the cities within which they reside. It is vital that policymakers acknowledge the identified heterogeneity and modify policies to meet all the residents’ needs.
Analysis
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Age-Friendly Cities project is the foundation upon which the study is based. The purpose of the research initiative was to establish whether or not the Hague supported active aging. The aforementioned principle is the perception that the elderly should be in a position to continue participating in the activities that characterized their youth and adult lives (van Hoof et al., 2022). The WHO defines age-friendly environments as those that encourage active aging by maximizing the opportunities that the elderly have to participate in healthy behaviors as a means of improving the quality of their lives (van Hoof et al., 2022). The WHO’s indicators of age-friendliness are based on the accessibility of the surroundings, equality, and the degree of inclusiveness in various communal activities (van Hoof et al., 2022). The purpose of the study was to establish the Hague’s age-friendliness and determine whether policy changes were necessary to improve people’s living conditions.
The researchers were guided by a set of specific research questions. The first was to identify the overall experiences of older people residing in the Hague regarding the city’s age-friendliness. The researchers were also focused on determining whether differences existed in the domains defined by the World Health Organization. The study also aimed to identify any variations between districts within the municipality. Finally, the researchers intended to ascertain whether or not variations regarding age-friendliness were present between different groups of people.
A cross-sectional design was applied by the researchers in the study. The Age-Friendly City and Community Questionnaire was used as a single self-assessment measurement to determine how older people perceived the city’s age-friendliness. The questionnaire comprises 23 items that address all the subdivisions of age-friendliness as demarcated by the World Health Organization and an additional aspect of finances, which is considered essential for age-friendliness in a city (van Hoof et al., 2022). The questionnaire measures participant responses on a Likert scale. The measurement tool demonstrated acceptable face validity and excellent readability.
The study results demonstrated that the Hague is a largely ideal city for age-friendliness. The municipality of the Hague was satisfactory in seven out of the nine domains that were evaluated in the study (van Hoof et al., 2022). The outdoor spaces, municipality, and building scores were moderate at best. The scores for most of the districts were higher than average, with the highest score identified in the Haagse Hout district at 18.4 and the lowest score noted in Leidschenveen-Ypenburg at 14.7 on a scale of -46 to +46 (van Hoof et al., 2022). It is worth noting that all the scores demonstrate satisfaction, which means that most of the districts are age-friendly. In general, all the older individuals who participated in the study ranked the Hague’s age-friendliness as satisfactory in all the domains that were evaluated in the questionnaire.
The researchers also conducted a regression analysis to evaluate the interaction of various factors in the study population. The researchers noted that sex was directly linked to an individual’s financial state and housing, with women reporting lower scores (van Hoof et al., 2022). The finding aligns with the evident gender pension gap that is particularly wide in the Netherlands. Individuals older than 75 years have higher overall scores, an observation that is attributed to survivor bias (van Hoof et al., 2022). The researchers also theorized that older individuals expressed satisfaction with their current situation because their childhoods were much worse by comparison, which is a phenomenon termed the satisfaction paradox (van Hoof et al., 2022). The findings from the study are invaluable in view of the fact that they will guide the Hague’s policy strategies with regard to the improvement of its older residents’ quality of life.
Evaluation
The qualitative study of the Hague’s age-friendliness has specific strengths and weaknesses. The research findings were rather difficult to interpret because there was limited qualitative data to accompany the quantitative findings. Individuals with Western immigration backgrounds were omitted from the study, which limited its representativeness. The strengths include the fact that the regression analysis facilitated the identification of variations between subpopulations. It is also worth noting that the study contributes to the improvement of age-friendliness in cities across the world.
Reference
van Hoof, J., van den Hoven, R. F. M., Hess, M., van Staalduinen, W. H., Hulsebosch-Janssen, L. M. T., & Dikken, J. (2022). How older people experience the age-friendliness of The Hague: A quantitative study. Cities, 124, 1–10. Web.
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