ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Urban Sociology
Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Version of the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ-Arabic)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- 2Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
- 3Hogeschool der Kunsten Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract Background and Objective: The World Health Organization has promoted the concept of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) as a response to global population aging. This approach aims to adapt physical and social environments to the needs of older adults, particularly in the context of ongoing urbanization. The Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire (AFCCQ) was designed to assess older adults' perceptions of age-friendliness in their communities but has not yet been validated in Arabic. This study aimed to translate, culturally adapt, and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the AFCCQ (AFCCQ-Arabic), and to assess how older Arabs in Israel perceive the age-friendliness of their communities. This population is an ethnic minority facing dual challenges given its age and minority status. Method: A cross-sectional sample of 202 Arab adults aged 60 and above was recruited through convenience sampling. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using the AFCCQ-Arabic, which includes 23 items across nine domains. Results: The AFCCQ-Arabic demonstrated overall acceptable psychometric properties among older Arabs in Israel. Face and content validity were supported. Construct validity was assessed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The original model demonstrated good fit indices (CFI = 0.922; TLI= 0.900; RMSEA = 0.064; SRMR = 0.072). Most domains showed acceptable Composite Reliability (CR) values, indicating good internal consistency. However, item 3 demonstrated a low factor loading and reduced the CR value of the social participation domain. Additionally, the civic participation and employment domain showed low reliability (CR = 0.28). Domain-level scores revealed diverse perceptions of age-friendliness: high scores in respect and
Keywords: age-friendly cities and communities, older adults, Arab minority, psychometric validation., Arabic AFCCQ
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Abojabel, Ayalon, Dikken and vanHoof. 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: Hanan Abojabel, hanan.abo-jabel@mail.huji.ac.il
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.