Age-friendly Environment and Aging in Place: Finding from Latent Profile Analysis

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Urban Planning
• Public Health

Background:

• Older adults increasingly prefer ageing in place (AIP) over institutional care.
• Ageing in place is challenging when communities lack adequate support systems for residents.
• Community age-friendliness is a critical factor influencing the feasibility of AIP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between community age-friendliness levels and older adults' intention to age in place.
• To identify distinct types of Age-friendly Communities (AFCs) based on resident perceptions.
• To determine if different AFC types are associated with varying likelihoods of AIP.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the AARP Age-friendly Community Survey, encompassing 6670 older adults in the USA.
• Employed Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) on 63 community assessment items to categorize AFCs.
• Conducted multinomial logistic regression to analyze the association between AFC types and AIP intention.

Main Results:

• Latent profile analysis identified three distinct community types: Underdeveloped, Developing, and Developed AFCs.
• Older adults in underdeveloped and developing communities were significantly less likely to prefer ageing in place compared to those in developed communities.
• A positive association was found between higher levels of community age-friendliness and the intention to age in place.

Conclusions:

• The level of a community's age-friendliness significantly impacts older adults' desire and ability to age in place.
• Developing and implementing Age-friendly Community initiatives is crucial for supporting the growing population of older adults.
• Policymakers should prioritize expanding AFC programs to enhance support for independent living among seniors.