Building Hong Kong into an age-friendly city: results from a baseline assessment

Abstract

Funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the baseline assessment, including a survey and focus groups, was conducted between July 2015 and February 2016 across Hong Kong. Community-dwelling adults aged 18+ were invited to respond to a structured questionnaire and give views on eight domains of age-friendliness (outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, and community support and health services) as suggested by the World Health Organization. Socio-demographics, self-rated health, use of community center, and sense of community were also collected.

A total of 4,274 respondents completed the survey, with 63.6% aged 65+ (mean age, 66.9 years) and 68.8% being women. Mean scores of each domain ranged from 3.7 to 4.3 (scale of 1–6), with social participation and housing had the highest and lowest scores respectively. Multivariate analyses showed that respondents who were older, living in public rental housing, users of community center, had higher self-rated health and sense of community gave significantly higher scores in at least three domains (all P<0.01). Data from 40 focus groups (n=347) were also analyzed to identify advantages, barriers and suggestions for improving age-friendliness in their community. For example, respondents reported satisfaction with variety of social activities available in the community but barriers in housing maintenance services.

The baseline assessment offered valuable information on the current age-friendliness of Hong Kong and gave evidence-based direction to inform community programmes. Follow-up assessment will be carried out to evaluate effectiveness of the programmes.