Grant: Operating Grant: Population Health Intervention Research

Rationale To address the challenges of the global aging population, the World Health Organization promoted age-friendly communities as a way to foster the development of active aging community initiatives. Accordingly, key components, i.e., policies, services and structures related to the communities' physical and social environments, should be designed to be age-friendly and help all aging adults to live safely, enjoy good health and stay involved in their communities. Although age-friendly communities are believed to be one of the best ways to help aging Canadians lead healthy and active lives, little is known about which key components best foster positive health, social participation and health equity, and how. Objectives The general objective of this proposal is to better understand which and how key components of age-friendly communities best foster positive health, social participation and health equity in aging Canadians. Specifically, the research aims to: 1)Describe and compare age-friendly key components of communities across Canada 2)Identify key components best associated with positive health, social participation and health equity of aging adults 3)Explore how these key components foster positive health, social participation and health equity Method A mixed-method sequential explanatory design will be used. The quantitative part will involve a survey of selected Canadian communities and secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. In the qualitative part, a multiple case study will be conducted in five Canadian communities performing best on positive health, social participation and health equity. Expectations Building on new and existing collaborations and generating evidence from real-world interventions, the results of this project will help age-friendly communities to identify policies, services and structures which foster positive health, social participation and health equity at a population level.