[Establishing Age-Friendly Community Guidelines in Taiwan].

As Taiwan heads steadily toward becoming a super-aged society, the impact of aging on society at large will become increasingly extensive and intense. Therefore, establishing an age-friendly environment in Taiwan is an important issue for the government. Feasible guidelines for age-friendly communities are necessary to ensure that appropriate social welfare measures are enacted to achieve the national goal of aging in place. The first draft of the guideline questionnaire was developed based on the World Health Organization Guidelines for Age-Friendly Cities, a literature review, and input from seven experts on aging. Three rounds of questionnaire surveys were then conducted to assess the correctness, appropriateness, and importance of the guidelines, with amendments, additions, and deletions made based on the experts' responses until they all expressed a high degree of satisfaction with all of the guidelines. The Taiwan Age-friendly Community Guidelines document discussed in this article includes 38 guidelines that address the eight facets of "outdoor spaces and buildings", "transportation", "housing", "social participation", "respect and social inclusion", "civil participation and employment", "communication and information", and "community support and health services". The guidelines document describes in detail the goals of age-friendly communities in specific and easy-to-understand terms. Moreover, it provides a reference for frontline personnel in the community to promote age-friendly environs.

Developing Indicators of Age-Friendliness in Taiwanese Communities through a Modified Delphi Method.

This study developed indicators of age-friendliness for communities in Taiwan that conform to international standards by referring to the World Health Organization Checklist of Essential Features of Age-Friendly Cities and Taiwan's existing indicators. The first stage of the research was based on the WHO's framework and involved a literature review to identify candidate indicators. In the second stage, experts' opinions were collected through a modified Delphi method, and the indicators were screened and revised on the basis of their importance, community enforceability, and generality. The third stage focused on practical feasibility. External parties were invited to offer their opinions regarding the indicators, which were adjusted accordingly. After three rounds of review and re-examination based on the modified Delphi method, the final set of indicators comprised five core indicators and five optional indicators. These indicators can be used to monitor various aspects of communities and determine their age-friendliness.

Challenges faced by community connectors: lessons learned from a Taiwan public health initiative.

BACKGROUND: Effective solutions that meet the diverse community health needs of older adult populations are of critical importance. To address these needs, a nationwide community connector team-tasked with providing referral support to older adult populations and completing an asset mapping resource inventory initiative centered around the needs of older adult populations-was developed in Taiwan. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore community connectors' experiences and challenges. METHODS: Community connectors (n = 26) across four diverse sites participated in focus group interviews in July 2020. Interviews explored the challenges community connectors encountered in their roles; the strategies used to address these challenges; the asset mapping process; and on how they conceptualized their roles. Qualitative content analysis was applied. RESULTS: Three themes were uncovered: developing community ties, cross-organization interactions and professional conflicts. The findings show that community connectors face hurdles in uncovering community resources and that they experience considerable professional instability. The findings also shed light on the day-to-day approaches used to navigate on-the-job challenges and the steps taken to develop community partnerships. CONCLUSIONS: The experiences of community connectors provide important insights and can serve to illuminate the development of similar initiatives that seek to use community connectors for community health related purposes.

Quit smoking advice from health professionals in Taiwan: the role of funding policy and smoker socioeconomic status.

OBJECTIVES: In 2002, Taiwan launched a program to encourage doctors to provide brief cessation counselling to their patients during routine outpatient visits. This study is to compare and analyse the annual prevalence rate of receiving advice to quit smoking from health professionals before (2004) and after (2005, 2006) the increase in funding and the withdrawal of additional funding (2007). METHODS: We analysed pooled data from 2004 to 2007 Taiwan Adult Tobacco Survey, an annual random digit dialling telephone survey, to estimate the prevalence of receiving quit advice among ever smokers across these years. Smoking characteristics and the socioeconomic factors of smokers associated with receipt of advice to quit smoking were also examined. RESULTS: The prevalence rate of receiving quit advice increased from 21.1% in 2004 to 28.2% in 2006, and then decreased slightly to 27.6% in 2007 after the funds were cut. Multivariate analyses results indicated that increasing financing for smoking cessation services in 2005, being male, older, a daily cigarette user, having previously attempted to quit, perceiving oneself as having poor health and being aware of the benefits of smoking cessation services were significantly positively associated with receiving quit advice from health professionals. In contrast, smokers who were younger, female and occasional cigarette users were less likely to receive quit advice. Also, smokers with socioeconomic disadvantages were not less likely to receive quit advice. CONCLUSIONS: During the period of increased funding for smoking cessation services, the rates of receiving quit advice increased among all smokers and across different socioeconomic groups.