| 요약2 |
Age-friendly communities enhance the walkability of seniors and promote their outdoor activities and health. This study identified going-out behavior of seniors, and explored the gap between seniors’ perceptions of importance regarding an age-friendly community focusing on walkability and older adults’ satisfaction with their current community. An Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) framework (Martilla & James, 1977) was adopted for comparison. The target population was seniors age 65 and over living in Busan, South Korea. Data was collected through a face-to-face survey using a developed survey instrument (N=300). The measurement for the age-friendly community modified from World Health Organization’s Checklist of Essential Features of Age-friendly Cities. The measurement included seven constructs: pavements, pedestrian crossings, street seating, public toilets, bus stop, subway station, and green area. Each item was measured using a 5-point Likert-scale and a paired-sample t-test was used for the importance and corresponding satisfaction scores comparison. Results show that the participants go-out 5.09 days per week and twice a day. IPA results indicate significant variances between older adults’ perceptions of importance and their satisfaction. Items with higher importance than mean importance scores and lower satisfaction than mean satisfaction scores indicate items requiring immediate improvement. A total of seven items out of 31 were the aforementioned items: three items in pavements (no slopes and steps, dropped curbs to road level, non-slip pavements); three items in pedestrian crossings (sufficient number of pedestrian crossings, dropped curbs to road level, adequate crossing items); and one item in bus stop (bus stop location). This study confirms and identifies specific gaps in the age-friendly community of seniors in Busan, Korea. It has important implications for policymakers and public space planners. |