ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1618534
This article is part of the Research TopicNeighborhoods and Community: The Role of Built and Social Environment for Healthy AgingView all 3 articles
Operationalizing Age-Friendliness in Urban China: A Multi-Case Study of Gated Retirement and Open Multi-Generational Communities
Provisionally accepted
Yiting Tan*
Jianyuan Huang- Hohai University, Nanjing, China
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Abstract: Age-Friendly Communities (AFCs) play a pivotal role in creating supportive social and physical environments, which enable older adults to maintain mobility, independence, healthier living, and successful aging-in-place. This study evaluated two age-friendly community models in China: Gated Retirement Communities (GRCs) and Open Multi-Generational Communities (OMGCs), which have exhibited different effects in practice. An analytical framework incorporating policies, facilities, services, intergenerational relationships, and sustainability has been established to systematically compare these models, with the aim of identifying some more effective age-friendly measures at the community level. Through a multi-case analysis of six communities, the research results revealed that GRCs were prone to spatial inequality, idle waste of resources, violation of service commitment, intergenerational exclusion and unsustainability. On the contrary, OMGCs demonstrated better age-friendliness and stronger vitality. This research concluded by discussing the key priorities and effective measures of age-friendly communities development, offering valuable insights for Asian nations and developing countries seeking to advance age-friendly initiatives.
Keywords: Age-friendly community, Supportive environments, Gated retirement community, Openmulti-generational community, Multi-case study
Received: 26 Apr 2025; Accepted: 10 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tan and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yiting Tan, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
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