“The Real Impacts That AAAs are Making:” Developing Measures of Area Agency on Aging Success

ABSTRACT

The more than 600 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) throughout the U.S. are as diverse as the communities they serve, making it challenging to establish indicators of success that are not simply compliance-focused. This study builds agreement among AAAs to identify impactful, feasible, and measurable indicators of success. A mixed methods study was conducted with two surveys of AAA experts to identify indicators of success; assessments of those indicators’ impact, feasibility, and measurability; and virtual focus groups to interpret findings. Most indicators that had the potential for high impact received low feasibility and measurability scores. AAAs want more technical assistance, funding, and staffing resources from their states and the Administration on Aging to make data collection and analysis less burdensome and more outcome-oriented. State Units on Aging and the Administration on Aging can use the study findings to improve assessments of AAAs without placing undue burdens on staff attempting to demonstrate their impact. This study can help to identify future priorities regarding AAA assessments and innovations.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging Network
• innovation
• quality improvement

Key Points

• All Aging Network participants thought compliance should be a measure of success.

• Area Agencies on Aging want to demonstrate their impact on clients and communities.

• Area Agencies on Aging want baseline standards and community-specific flexibility.

• Area Agencies on Aging need more state guidance and staff to measure outcomes.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institute of Aging (T32 AG000037). The author would like to thank the Aging Network experts who participated in each round of this study for sharing their time, expertise, and insights. The author would also like to thank Kathleen H Wilber, PhD, for providing feedback during the study design and manuscript preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Institute on Aging [T32 AG000037].