Who Has Access to America’s Most Livable Neighborhoods? An Analysis of AARP’s Livability Index

Abstract

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Age-Friendly Communities and Older Adults’ Health in the United States

“…Results of our analyses before and after applying the IPW support our hypothesis that after adjusting for relevant covariates and self-selection into the neighborhood, AFC environments confer health advantages for older adults. Consistent with the previous finding that older Whites were more likely to live in more livable communities than people of color [ 45 ], they lived in an AFC in this study. As education is a consistent factor to choose a neighborhood [ 46 ], those with higher levels of education were more likely to live in an AFC.…”

What Makes a Better Life for People Facing Dementia? Toward Dementia‐Friendly Health and Social Policy, Medical Care, and Community Support in the United States

“…Nursing-home workers in Kentucky reported that they work in a stigmatized environment. 3 Basting's program likely benefits these workers by making them happier at work and by creating bonds between the communities where they live and the marginalized facilities where they work. and team at each appointment, building familiarity and trust, is well-suited to dementia.…”

“…The financing of these services is especially problematic for the typical older American on a fixed income, who may have difficulty paying for basics such as food and housing, let alone additional care support. 3 For this reason, the high cost of a dementia diagnosis routinely creates financial hardships for people and families who are not wealthy. 4 Moreover, the hidden costs of unpaid labor by family caregivers, most of whom are women, exacts a heavy toll.…”

The Age-Friendly Community Policy Movement and the Residential Location of U.S. Older Adults: The Case of Hamilton County, Ohio

“…The tool was developed to fill a particular gap, as “AARP determined that nothing as comprehensive as the Livability Index existed to assess livability at the neighborhood level … [and] needed an on-the-ground picture of how to improve neighborhoods and communities … to prompt community conversations and action regarding livable communities” (AARP Public Policy Institute., 2018c). However, a recent report from the AARP/Joint Center for Housing Studies (Molinsky et al, 2020) based on descriptive statistical analyses (e.g., cross-tabulation) finds that most older adults in the U.S. do not reside in livable communities; more precisely, “more people ages 50 and older are living in neighborhoods that score lower on the Index than in neighborhoods that receive the highest scores” (Molinsky et al, 2020). While there is a lack of academic literature that examines the index’s validity as a policy-guiding tool, this report using the index provides the insight that there might be a general mismatch nationwide, whereby areas with the highest livability scores are not the areas where older adults live (or necessarily prefer to live).…”

“…The examination involves visual inspection of maps as well as a hot-/cold-spot analysis of whether geographic areas with higher scores on the Livability Index are also areas with greater percentages of older residents. The AARP/Joint Center report also discusses how livability varies by geography; for instance, the Northeast and Midwest and city neighborhoods across the country rank highest on the index overall (Molinsky et al, 2020). Justification for the selection of this case can be found from the fact that Hamilton County is in Ohio, a midwestern state, and contains both urban and suburban neighborhoods, which enables a direct comparison of the two geographies, and Cincinnati, the cultural, economic, and political center of the county as well as the county seat, is regarded as one of the most “American” cities based on the closeness of its demographics to the national average (Bernardo, 2016).…”