A tale of eight cities: age friendliness and the CLSA

Currently, there is little research linking age-friendly communities with well-being of older residents. Such research is vital because age-friendly initiatives represent an enormous amount of effort and cost. We are among the first in Canada to research age-friendliness of our municipalities. Many indicators in our evaluation frameworks rely on CLSA data; others on geospatial data. Objectives are to: 1) Compare aspects of age-friendliness across eight Canadian cities and to national averages 2) Compare indicators of physical, mental and social health of older people across our cities and to national averages 3) Explore the reasons for similarities and differences 4) Identify potential income, sex, rural/urban and linguistic inequalities in health determinants and outcomes within and across cities. Outcomes include user-friendly reports on progress towards age-friendliness to help prioritize municipal age-friendly actions. Second, we will develop a pan-Canadian age-friendly research collaboration. Third, this study will provide baseline data for measuring impact.