Age Friendly Characteristics and Sense of Community of an Italian City: The Case of Macerata.

Abstract

The paper presents a study about the city of Macerata, as a representative case of an urban community in the Marche Region, Italy. The aim of this paper is to assess the level of its age-friendliness by means of a quantitative analysis based on a questionnaire that relies on the well-established eight AFC domains proposed by the WHO. In addition, the sense of community (SOC) is investigated and how the older residents relate to it. Studies that analyze age-friendly Italian cities in relation to elder outcomes are limited. The paper contributes to fill this gap, and the findings reveal that the elderly respondents are not particularly satisfied about the services and the urban infrastructure of the city but show nevertheless a sense of community. It might be the combination of urban and rural features that contributes to the longevity and strong sense of community of the city despite its poor infrastructure and average services.