A Comparison of Older Adult's and Manager's Attitudes Towards Age-Friendly City Indexes

The process of development of age-friendly environments is one of the key challenges of policy makers. The aim of present study was to compare the elderly people’s and managers’ views towards age-friendly city indexes.
Methods & Materials: In this descriptive-analytic study, the attitudes of 379 older adults and 57 managers were compared. Data collection tool was WHO age-friendly cities indicators (2013). Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency percentage) and gamma test using SPSS software V. 21.0.
Of the 379 older adults, 64.9% (246 persons) were female. The mean age of the elderly was 68.31±8.25 years (minimum 60 and maximum 89 years). There were significant differences between older adults’ and managers’ views in 13 indicators of 21 indicators. The major indicators were evaluated ‘bad to very bad” from elderly people’s views. The significant difference from the managers’ views includes availability of source of information about health concerns and service needs of older persons (57% of elderly versus 14% of managers)(P=0.001). The policy-making status to guide the planning of new housing construction with regard to elderly person’s needs (57% of elderly versus 31.6% of managers)(P=0.014).
Collaboration of organizations’ custodian of elderly with older adults seems necessary in order to obtain the age-friendly city indexes.