Not quite home: the limitations of neighbourhood community assets measures for understanding ageing in place

Community assets may play an important role in enabling ageing in place. Features like access to health and social care, physical environments that support mobility, natural environments and community spaces that sustain social connection may influence whether people can continue to live successfully at home. Increasing data digitisation and the growing availability of spatial data have expanded opportunities to measure such characteristics quantitatively. We reviewed UK secondary data indices describing community assets in small areas across the UK and evaluated their usefulness for understanding ageing in place. The review identified several established UK community asset indices, including Access to Healthy Assets and Hazards, the English Community Needs Index and the Community Wellbeing Index, which draw on data from the decennial Censuses, government administration and mapping sources. We found that these indices do not include age-specific data. In addition, publicly accessible data resources describing older people’s environments lack some key indicators of healthy ageing in neighbourhoods. While UK neighbourhood level data has become more comprehensive, current measures of community assets often only offer a partial insight into the environmental and social conditions that support ageing in place. There is a need for more accessible secondary data focussed, specifically, on the neighbourhood environments of older populations. Alignment between data design, community data needs and the lived experiences of older adults are crucial to enhance the utility of these community assets indices for informing age-friendly policies and supporting healthier neighbourhoods.