What this means
Local leaders from many fields said shared responsibility is needed, with someone clearly in charge. Personal ties help, but formal structures are needed to last over time.
Plain-English summary written by an AI model from the abstract. The original is below.
- Who it was tested in
- 19 societal actors in a Swedish municipality, in a group discussion format
- Kind of research
- A study
The science
- Original title
- Societal actors' perceptions of intersectoral collaboration and the participation of older adults in the development of age-friendly environments.
- Authors
- Nivestam A, Törnblom M, Haak M et al.
- Journal
- BMC geriatrics
- Published
- Oct 15, 2026
- Study type
- Study · in humans
- PMID
- 42875747 ↗
Abstract
Background
Older adults' participation and intersectoral collaboration are central to the development of age-friendly environments. While previous research has emphasised the importance of these principles, less is known about how they are understood and enacted by societal actors in practice. This creates a need to explore societal actors' perceptions of both intersectoral collaboration and older adults' participation in the development of age-friendly environments.
What they did
The study had a participatory qualitative design. Data were collected through a World Café involving 19 societal actors in a Swedish municipal context. Participants represented several societal sectors relevant to age-friendly environments, including welfare, care, public health, governance, social sustainability, urban planning,mobility, civil society, and voluntary engagement.
What they found
The findings showed that participants perceived intersectoral collaboration as requiring shared societal responsibility across multiple sectors, while responsibility risked becoming unclear when no actor had an explicit mandate to coordinate, prioritise and act. Intersectoral collaboration was viewed as a way of sharing resources, yet also as vulnerable when it relied mainly on personal relationships and informal networks rather than organisationally embedded structures. Similarly, older adults' participation was highly valued when developing age-friendly initiatives, but participants questioned whether existing participation channels adequately reflect the diversity of older adults' experiences and needs. Age-friendly work requires shared responsibility across societal actors, supported by clear coordination. Personal relationships and informal networks should be recognised as valuable for enabling collaboration, but they need to be complemented by formal structures to ensure sustainability over time. Moreover, greater efforts to reach seldom-heard older adults are needed. Doing so may contribute to more nuanced and age-friendly initiatives that better reflect the diverse needs of the older population.
The authors' abstract, grouped under plain headings from its own section labels.
Nivestam A, Törnblom M, Haak M et al. Societal actors' perceptions of intersectoral collaboration and the participation of older adults in the development of age-friendly environments. BMC geriatrics. 2026. doi:10.1186/s12877-026-08407-5. PMID: 42875747. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42875747/