Development and Pilot Validation of an Age-Friendly City Assessment Tool Based on Older Adults’ Perspectives in a Semi-Urban Community

BACKGROUND: Age-friendly city (AFC) initiatives are widely promoted to support healthy aging; however, most existing AFC assessments rely on administrative or expert-driven evaluations that primarily reflect institutional perspectives. These approaches may overlook how age-friendly characteristics are experienced by older adults-the population most directly affected by community environments-particularly in semi-urban settings. This study aimed to develop and conduct a preliminary psychometric evaluation of an AFC assessment tool based on older adults' perspectives. METHODS: A Research and Development (R&D) design was employed. The instrument was conceptually grounded in the World Health Organization Age-Friendly Cities framework and adapted from a governmental checklist through item reformulation and contextual modification for semi-urban application in Thai setting. Content validity was examined by an expert panel using the Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC). Preliminary internal consistency reliability testing was conducted with a small purposive sample of older adults. The refined instrument was then pilot-tested with an independent sample of community-dwelling older adults to evaluate feasibility and descriptive response patterns. Internal consistency reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, and descriptive analyses were performed across domains and subdomains. RESULTS: The finalized instrument comprised 52 items across three domains and eight subdomains. Content validity was strong, with IOC values ranging from 0.80 to 1.00. Preliminary reliability testing demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.97), indicating suitability for pilot use while suggesting potential item redundancy. Pilot responses showed predominantly high perceived age-friendliness, with moderate scores in selected subdomains. CONCLUSIONS: The AFC Assessment Tool demonstrated strong preliminary psychometric properties and practical feasibility for use among community-dwelling older adults in semi-urban settings. By incorporating older adults' perspectives, the tool provides a context-sensitive approach that complements existing administrative and objective assessments. Further validation using larger and more diverse samples is needed to establish construct validity, confirm dimensional structure, and strengthen applicability in public health and environmental gerontology research.