The Role of Age-Friendly Environment in Promoting Healthy Aging: From Multidimensional Environmental Facets and Psychological Perspective

Age-friendly environments are a key determinant of healthy aging, while subjective age is assumed to be a psychological factor affecting one's behavior and well-being. This study explores how age-friendly environments play a role in promoting healthy aging through (1) putting macro-social and micro-family environments in the same context and (2) examining the moderating role of subjective age. In a random sample of 2,788 older adults, we found that (1) higher levels of age-friendly family and social environments were consistently associated with better health outcomes; (2) subjective age significantly moderated the social environment-frailty relationship (β = -0.26, p < 0.001), with stronger protective effects observed among those feeling older; and (3) specific social environment domains (life security and accessibility) showed particularly pronounced moderation effects by subjective age. These findings demonstrate that environmental and psychological factors jointly influence health states, and underscore the need for integrated interventions that enhance age-friendly environments and foster positive aging perceptions to optimize health in later life.