Determining the Features of Age Friendly for City Development

Abstract

Malaysia is projected to become an aging nation in the year 2035. As a significant fraction of the elderly is anticipated to be residing in urban areas, therefore it is critically important for local and relevant government agencies to prepare the city environment for the increasing aging population. Age-friendly city is a concept emerged to address the urban aged population through various strategies. Although a significant number of studies were conducted on age-friendly cities, nevertheless, city features that are important to achieve the state of an age friendly city environment remain a subject for exploration. Therefore, this study primarily aims to document the development of the age-friendly features in various countries, in understanding common features that underlie its implementation. The research applies the deductive research approach that includes descriptive and content analyses. A total of 60 important features were commonly used across the report. The findings of the study provide significance as a key input for developing embedding age-friendly city development in Malaysia.

Determining Elderly-Friendly Features Based on an Age-Friendly City Approach: An Empirical Analysis on Local Perspective in Taiping and Ipoh, Malaysia

“…The initial stage of the study is centred on identifying city features documented by various forms of reports across the globe in implementing an age-friendly city. The results of the initial stage were documented in Rashid et al (2021) as the main inputs for the second stage. On the contrary, the purpose of the second stage is to determine the suitability of the list of city features to be implemented in Malaysia based on local perspective.…”

Active Aging and Smart Public Parks

“…In their study, Rashid et al examined various reports from age-friendly initiatives around the world, including those from New York City, Taiwan, Washington DC, London, Liverpool, South Australia, the UK, and New Zealand [89]. By applying the eight dimensions outlined in the WHO's guide, the authors identified 60 age-friendly features and categorized them according to the most relevant dimensions.…”

“…The seven revised dimensions, resulting in 33 features, are shown in Table 1. One piece of research conducted analyses on multiple reports at different levels of governance, including district, city, state, and federal governments [89]. This variability highlights that the WHO guidelines provide principles that can be adapted and applied across various levels and regions [77].…”