Age-friendly Community and the Decade of Healthy Ageing

Age-friendliness Assessment

Introduction

In tandem with the vision to make Hong Kong an age-friendly city, the Institute has parcitpated in the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project since 2015, which is led by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust in partnership with Hong Kong's four gerontology research institutes to develop a common framework to measure the age-friendliness of 18 districts of Hong Kong and identify areas of improvement.

The Institute was responsible for conducting baseline assessment and final assessment on the level of age-friendliness in five local districts, namely Kwai Tsing, North, Sai Kung, Sha Tin and Tai Po. Based on the framework of eight domains of an Age-friendly City (AFC) set out by WHO, the studies aimed to reach out to community members across diverse socio-demographic backgrounds and understanding their views through both quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative (focus group interview) approaches.

The baseline assessment report and final assessment report were compiled for each district to highlight the current situations of age-friendliness in the community, and identify strengths and weaknesses for each AFC domain. Relevant recommendations were made to guide the District Councils and community stakeholders to develop a three year action plan in creating age-friendly community.

Based on the final assessment findings on age-friendliness, the Institute further developed four thematic reports to provide detailed exploration on the case of Hong Kong regarding four domains of an age-friendly city, namely Outdoor spaces and buildings, Transportation, Communication and information, as well as Community support and health services. Each report highlights the current situations of age-friendliness of the domain and its age-friendly policies and measures in Hong Kong, and proposes recommendations to the Government and other relevant parties in implementing age-friendly initiatives.