Evaluating Indicators of the Desirable City for the Elderly (Case Study: Yasuj City)

Like most people in Iran, the citizens of the city of Yasuj are elderly. According to the Statistics Center of Iran (2016), out of the total population of Yasuj (n= 134532), 5362 people are elderly which makes up about 3.98 percent of its citizens. Currently, few facilities, arrangements, and welfare services have been considered for this group in Yasuj which has caused their deprivation from urban spaces and different communities. Hence, this study tried to investigate and analyze the indicators of a desirable city for the elderly in case of Yasuj, and answer the questions “whether the needs of this section of society have been met in the planning and design of the city?” and “which index has received the greatest attention in final evaluation of the indicators of the desirable city for the elderly in Yasuj?” The data collection includes library and field studies. To analyze the indicators of the desirable city for the elderly in Yasuj, the required data were first collected using a questionnaire, and then, the subject was studied using statistical analysis models in SPSS including one-sample t-test and multivariate regression analysis. Moreover, to investigate the validity of the components evaluated in this study, the exploratory factor analysis model was used. The statistical population of the study consists of all residents (aging  60 years) in the city of Yasuj. Later, using Cochran's formula, 380 people were selected through simple random sampling. To evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used, so that based on the obtained numerical value (0.87), the reliability of the questionnaire was considered as excellent. The results showed that of the five studied dimensions, the access dimension with an average value (3.35) had the best status and the most desirable dimension for the elderly. Respectively, the two dimensions of security (with an average value off 3.07) and urban furniture (with an average value of 3.02) had the best situation among the evaluated dimensions for the elderly. The transportation dimension (with an average value of 2.47) and the passages (with an average value of 2.56) had the worst situation from the perspective of the elderly in this analysis, so they were in a very unfavorable situation.