How Age Friendly is This City? Strategies for Assessing Age-Friendliness

The Age-Friendly Cities framework, created by the World Health Organization (WHO), has emerged as a community-based response to the challenges of demographic aging and increasing urbanization. In 2010, London, Ontario, became the first city in Canada to join the WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Communities. Network milestones require the measurement of the baseline age-friendliness of the community. The objectives of this thesis are: 1. Determine the best available assessment tools for measuring the age-friendliness of a community, and 2. Establish the baseline age-friendliness of London, Ontario. A scoping review was utilized to collect and assess available surveys and questionnaires. A quantitative survey of older adults in London was used to determine the baseline age-friendliness of the city and provide a template for other cities and communities. Findings indicate there is a paucity of tools available for AFC, and London is a moderately age-friendly city with specific areas for improvement