Age-friendly practices during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a scoping review

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic called for innovation and leverage of existing age-friendly practices to promote older people's functional ability and enable them to contribute to their communities and enjoy life. Our aim was to explore the evidence available concerning the development, adaptation, and evaluation of age-friendly practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A review was conducted in line with the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology. We considered publications of practices across the 8 domains of the World Health Organization (WHO) age-friendly framework. Our search strategy comprised databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus) and grey literature sources. RESULTS: Preliminary findings identified 37 practices by member organizations of the WHO network. The most targeted domains were community support and healthcare services; communication and information; and social participation; while the least targeted were transportation; housing; and outdoor spaces and buildings. Adaptive strategies often relied on remote delivery of information and services through digital or phone contact. Most practices were led by local authorities in collaboration with community organizations, universities, and healthcare practitioners. Opportunities for older people to contribute to the design and implementation of practices varied widely across settings. Enablers for adaptation or development included pre-existing collaborations between stakeholders, availability of contact details of older people in the community, and availability of human and material resources to implement changes. Challenges included limited literacy and access to digital technologies, and participants’ distrust of remote activities. CONCLUSIONS: Findings emerging from the scoping review provide insights regarding age-friendly practices during COVID-19 and may inform the development of appropriate multi-stakeholder and participatory interventions during future public health crises. KEY MESSAGES: • Age-friendly practices may significantly contribute to meet older people’s material, social and affective needs during public health crises. • Opportunities to leverage age-friendly practices increase with the inclusion of older people’s voices, intergenerational solidarity, multi-stakeholder involvement and strong political will.