WHO's Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide: Its Implications of a Discussion on Social Exclusion among Older Adults.

Soondool Chung,Erica Y Auh,Miri Kim,Nan Sook Park

doi:10.3390/ijerph18158027

Abstract

This study analyzed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide to observe its role in embodying social inclusion of older adults in attempts to prevent social exclusion. Social exclusion refers to the marginalization of individuals and groups from important economic and social opportunities in the society. Many aging societies are implementing social inclusion of older adults as one of their key policy agendas to create a more sustainable and healthy society, in recognition that age functions as one of the essential factors accelerating social exclusion and declining physical and mental health of those affected. In order to explore the pertinence of the WHO guidelines to social inclusion of older adults, content analysis was conducted on each checklist item in the WHO guideline to identify its relation to the four dimensions of social exclusion, which are social interaction, production, consumption, and political engagement. The results showed comprehensive coverage of each dimension by the guideline, although the relative importance of each dimension was unequal. Additional insights were suggested to promote further social inclusion of older adults in the context of an age-friendly environment.

Highlights

Katsunori Kondo and Social exclusion has been a key theme of the European social policy agenda since its emergence in the 1990s [1], and it has been identified in numerous studies as a major issue for the aging population [2,3]
Of the remaining 83 items that were in mention of older adults, 63 items were found to be in correspondence with the social exclusion dimensions of Burchardt et al, and they were used for analysis [13]
This paper examined whether the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide published in 2007 is relevant in embodying the prevention of social exclusion, in an effort to promote the social inclusion of older adults with the use of Burchardt et al.’s social exclusion framework [13]

Summary

Introduction

Katsunori Kondo and Social exclusion has been a key theme of the European social policy agenda since its emergence in the 1990s [1], and it has been identified in numerous studies as a major issue for the aging population [2,3]. Excluded individuals or groups experience a lack of resources, goods, services, rights, and participation opportunities and become separated from mainstream society. This can negatively affect any chance of an individual integrating economically and socially within society [4]. To engage cities around the world to become more inclusive of the older population, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed the concept of age-friendly cities. It is designed for older people to participate in social activities without age barriers, and the key characteristics of an age-friendly city are presented in their 2007 Global Age-Friendly Cities

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