Evaluation of an Age-Friendly City and Its Effect on Life Satisfaction: A Two-Stage Study

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has established the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiative, which promotes active ageing by optimising health, participation and safety opportunities in order to improve people’s quality of life as they age. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing a new agenda for the age-friendly cities movement, increasing the number of reviews on the subject and stepping up research on the evaluation of age-friendly cities in different countries. However, the methodology used in the studies has met with some criticism which points out that the surveys conducted may not be well suited to reflect the views of the elderly. This Spanish study aims to: (1) evaluate an age-friendly city with a two-stage study approach, so as to integrate research results with policies in order to improve the quality of life of the elderly in urban areas; (2) evaluate the relationship between life satisfaction and the specific domains of an age-friendly city, taking into account different age cohorts of elderly persons; (3) evaluate the relationship between life satisfaction and the specific domains of an age-friendly city, taking into account whether the elderly persons live alone or with someone else.