Identifying Priorities for Aging Policies in Two Portuguese Communities

How do policies promote the sustainable development of older-adult care industry? A configuration analysis based on policy tools

Background

Under the background of population aging in China, the demand for older-adult care services and products is growing, and the older-adult care industry has great development prospects. A sound older-adult care policy system, that is, an effective policy tool mix, plays an important role in improving the sustainable development of older-adult care industry.

Materials and methods

Based on older-adult care policy documents from 31 Chinese provinces, this research extracts older-adult care policy tools via text mining. Then extracted policy tools are taken as conditional variables, and the development of older-adult care industry, which is manifested by the number of older-adult care companies across 31 regions is taken as the result variable. Through applying qualitative comparative analysis, the combined effect of different policy tools on the development of older-adult care industry is obtained.

Results and discussions

Results show that a single policy tool cannot constitute the necessary condition to facilitate the older-adult care industry. Hence, policy tools should be applied in combination. Five sustainable policy tool mixes which can promote the development of older-adult care industry are summarized, namely supporting policy-driven mode, fiscal and tax support mode led by supply-oriented policy tools, double-team mode driven by fiscal and tax support and the consumer market, multi-subject joint force mode, and technology compensation mode. The overall findings of this study imply that exploring the policy tool combinations is of vital importance to the sustainable development of older-adult care industry.

Active aging awareness and well-being among older adults in Portugal

Objective

This study aims to assess the active aging awareness of older adults in mainland Portugal and their levels of overall well-being and to identify social and health-related factors.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted with a representative sample of 613 older adults, aged 65 or older, who participated in the PROKnos - Knowing Social Prescribing needs of the elderly study in Portugal. The questionnaire consisted of the Active Ageing Awareness Questionnaire and the World Health Organization - Five Well-Being Index, as well as sociodemographic, economic, and health status questions. Correlation coefficients, t-tests for independent samples, and one-way ANOVA were used to explore potential associations between variables.

Results

The active aging awareness levels were significantly higher for women (p = 0.031), and those who were younger (p = 0.011), more educated (p < 0.001), had a better financial situation (p < 0.001), and had better health (p < 0.001). The same pattern was found for well-being, except in relation to gender, as men had higher levels (p = 0.016). These variables were found to be correlated.

Discussion

Even though active aging is an important strategy to implement, it is indispensable to consider the perceptions and conditions that need to be in place before that. This study reveals that several social and health-related factors are associated with well-being and active aging awareness, as well as the differences between groups that exist in mainland Portugal in relation to that. This emphasizes how vital it is to address social inequalities in active aging efforts, which are not necessarily uncovered when only considering actual active aging measures.

A Policy Framework for Producing Age-Friendly Communities from the Perspective of Production of Space

Given various hindrances in the macro context, how to efficiently develop age-friendly community policies requires further research. Currently, such kinds of frameworks are lacking. This paper aims to develop a policy framework to minimise cost and resolve conflict of interest between different generations in age-friendly community development. The study adopted a scientometric method to review the theoretical development of age-friendly community studies. Firstly, with a search for the keywords "age-friendly" and "community" on Web of Science, 72 English academic papers were found containing explicit theories. Most of the studies were conducted in the Global North. Then, a mixed analytical method was used to find a suitable theory, "the production of space", to develop the policy framework. Lastly, a policy framework was developed to overcome barriers to age-friendly community development strategically. Echoing previous studies, this paper proposes a way to counter financial austerity in age-friendly initiative investment and balance the consideration for older and younger populations in urban development. For practice, the policy framework can provide a reference for more efficient age-friendly community policymaking in different regions. For future research, the framework provides a model for more empirical studies considering the social dynamics in age-friendly community development.