Through Seniors’ Eyes: Age Friendly Communities

About Through Seniors’ Eyes

Through Senior’s Eyes explored the relationships between seniors‟ perceptions of the age-friendliness of their city and quality of life within two retirement communities in Ottawa, Ontario. Building on the concept of “aging in place‟ and the World Health Organization’s eight indicators of age-friendly cities, a mixed-methods approach combined survey data collection and focus groups to investigate age-friendliness and quality of life (QOL) “through seniors‟ eyes”.

As expected, our survey data revealed multiple positive relationships between the age-friendly community indicators and QOL. In particular, social participation and housing were found to be the key indicators that were associated with perceived quality of life amongst the study participants.

Moreover, social participation continued to be the most important indicator within the qualitative phases of the study. Family and friends, aging in a familiar community, and physical/information accessibility emerged as the three major themes related to enhanced social participation for older adults.