The World Health Organization’s age-friendly city initiative emerged as a response to the intersecting global trends of population ageing and urbanisation. However, a third global trend—digitalisation—has largely been overlooked in research and policy making relating to age-friendly cities and communities. Within the context of a general shift towards online civic participatory activities, this article explores older adults’ digital citizenship in an age-friendly city in the North of England. Drawing on interviews, observations and field notes from design workshops as part of an ongoing participatory action research project, we consider two key questions. First, how does an age-friendly city stakeholder organisation of older adults make use of digital technologies in order to provide digital information and communications? Second, what is the potential of digital audio to increase civic participation in later life and local engagement with age-friendly issues? Our analysis focuses on two domains of the World Health Organization’s age-friendly city framework: Communication and information and civic participation. First, we report on the stakeholder organisation’s efforts to re-design their digital newsletter in order to provide information and communications to older residents about local work on ageing projects. We then outline the organisation’s efforts, in a public setting, to engage with digital audio as a way to increase the participation of older residents with age-friendly topics. We conclude by suggesting the need to re-frame the role of digital technologies within the age-friendly city, broadening the scope from accessibility towards enhancing digital citizenship opportunities.

The ongoing digitalisation of societies, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to increased efforts to ensure the digital inclusion of older adults. Digital inclusion strategies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic predominantly focused on increasing access and basic digital literacy of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for all members of society. Older adults, who are more likely to experience digital exclusion, are amongst the target groups of digital inclusion strategies. We propose that beyond digital inclusion, there is a need to focus on digital participation and optimise opportunities for everyone to participate in communities and society in post-pandemic times. Creative digital skills are the foundation of digital participation and can lead to a variety of contributions. Digital participation offers conditions that support agency and active contributions in a digitalised society. Taking macro-, meso-, and micro-level enablers of digital participation in later life into account, we argue for the establishment and implementation of multi-layered and multisectoral partnerships that address environmental factors (including social and physical dimensions) of digital participation and create opportunities for diverse, meaningful and fulfilling engagement with ICTs in later life. The partnership approach can be used in designing and implementing digital participation programmes and should be further evaluated against the needs and lived experiences of older individuals. Foresighted research is needed to investigate key factors of effective partnerships for optimising environments for digital participation in later life.

The importance of older adults' participation in policymaking is increasingly recognized, but the nuanced participation processes remain insufficiently understood. This scoping review aims to map existing research on older adults' participation in policymaking, focusing on who participates, their activities and contributions, resulting outputs and outcomes, and the enablers and barriers affecting their participation. A systematic search was conducted to identify peer-reviewed literature through Web of Science, SocINDEX, Academic Search Complete, Humanities International Complete, and Scopus, and gray literature through Google Scholar, institutional repositories, and expert recommendations. The eligibility criteria are original empirical studies focusing on individuals aged 50 years and older and their participation in policymaking. In total, 23 studies were included in the final review. A structured extraction form was developed to capture study characteristics, participant socio-demographics, participation activities, policy outputs and outcomes, and factors affecting participation. Descriptive analysis was performed on study characteristics, and content analysis was conducted on participation processes. Most studies (78%) were conducted in high-income countries, often overrepresenting women, younger cohorts, more educated and community-dwelling older adults. This participation was often ad hoc rather than institutionally established and supported. Older adults contributed to developing policy documents, shaping long-term outcomes, and enhancing personal well-being. The review identified participation enablers at individual and institutional levels and highlighted barriers such as time and resource constraints, health limitations, power imbalances, and ageism. The findings inform policy and program interventions to establish mechanisms for older adults' participation, address barriers for disadvantaged groups, and create meaningful pathways for translating their contributions into policy outcomes.

Sport-related concussion (SRC) is a serious injury in youth team sports, including handball. While research on the prevention of SRC has made progress over the past 5 years, prevention strategies are lacking in handball. The aim was to explore and develop strategies focusing on information, rules and training that may prevent concussion in youth handball by incorporating knowledge from experts and end users. Using a participatory methodology, experts (physiotherapy, biomechanics: n=3) and end users (players, coaches, referees, coach educators: n=7) contributed their experience and knowledge in a 2-hour online workshop. Participants were given three videos illustrating typical high-risk concussion scenarios from handball games and a youth player’s accompanying fictional written scenario. In group discussions inspired by the brainwriting method, participants were asked to provide ideas for possible SRC prevention strategies related to information, rules and/or training. Data were collected on a digital whiteboard and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Three themes were derived: (1) ‘Coaches’ responsibility: raise awareness of the risk of injury and act to promote safe environments’; (2) ‘Players’ responsibility: safe defence and attack’; and (3) ‘Improvement of personal skills’. Experts and end users found information about high-risk situations and SRC symptoms, stricter rules and safe playing strategy training for goalkeepers, attacking and defending players, respectively, may effectively reduce SRC in handball. Information and stricter rules could be delivered through education and dissemination activities, whereas safe playing strategies should be trained at regular handball practice.

Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) is a key global WHO initiative aimed at fostering environments that promote healthy aging for everyone. As AFCC initiatives continue to expand, there is an increasing need to enhance monitoring and evaluation systems to effectively assess their progress and impact. However, significant knowledge gaps persist, particularly in the development of evaluation methods and AFCC indicators. Drawing on discussions and outcomes from an international, interdisciplinary expert meeting on age-friendly environments held in Shanghai in May 2024, this article offers a synthesis of key insights and reflections. We present examples from AFCCs in the Western Pacific and Nordic regions, and recommendations to enhance monitoring and evaluation with a focus on indicators. This includes defining clear objectives, addressing the diverse needs of target groups, tailoring evaluation methods, and assessing both the processes and outcomes of AFCC initiatives. Regarding AFCC indicators, we argue that several areas require further attention, including the need for a robust framework that emphasizes equity and inclusivity and the varied experiences of older adults. For example, this framework should guide the development of indicators that address older adults’ needs during life transitions, reflect societal transitions, and leverage interconnected age-friendly domains to promote health and well-being. We recommend developing AFCC indicators through participatory and developmental processes that encourage stakeholder engagement, particularly involving older adults. Research is needed to develop context-specific indicators and evaluation tools through local and regional studies, validate the indicators across diverse contexts, and incorporate global best practices for using indicators to achieve policy impact.