Older people today are more likely to age in their own private living environment. However, many face declining health and/or other issues that affect their ability to live independently and necessitate additional support. Such support can be provided by formal networks, but a considerable part can also be offered by informal networks of older people themselves. Going beyond these networks, older people can additionally and perhaps even more substantially benefit from vital communities. Nevertheless, even though this term is increasingly common in the literature, its meaning remains indistinct. A more thorough understanding of this concept might provide valuable knowledge that health care professionals, researchers and community workers can use to offer meaningful and effective support. The purpose of this paper is to draw on existing empirical research on vital communities to build knowledge of the different descriptions and dimensions of the concept. Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review methodology was adopted. Our search, conducted on 23 March 2020 and updated on 06 January 2021, yielded 4433 articles, of which six articles were included in the scoping review. We deduced that the conceptualisation of a vital community is based on three dimensions: the aim of a vital community, the processes behind a vital community and the typical characteristics of a vital community. None of the selected studies have mapped all three dimensions. Nevertheless, we assume that understanding all three matters when vital communities aim to contribute to the quality of life of people ageing in place.

今天的老年人更有可能在自己的私人生活环境中变老。然而，许多人面临健康状况下降和/或其他影响他们独立生活能力的问题，需要额外的支持。这种支持可以由正式的网络提供，但相当一部分也可以由老年人自己的非正式网络提供。除了这些网络之外，老年人还可以从重要的社区中获得更多甚至更多的好处. 然而，尽管这个术语在文献中越来越普遍，但它的含义仍然模糊不清。更透彻地理解这一概念可能会提供宝贵的知识，医疗保健专业人员、研究人员和社区工作者可以利用这些知识来提供有意义和有效的支持。本文的目的是利用对重要社区的现有实证研究，以建立对该概念的不同描述和维度的知识。采用了 Arksey 和 O'Malley 的范围审查方法。我们的搜索于 2020 年 3 月 23 日进行并于 2021 年 1 月 6 日更新，共检索到 4433 篇文章，其中 6 篇文章被纳入范围审查。我们推断，活力社区的概念化基于三个维度：活力社区的目标，重要社区背后的过程和重要社区的典型特征。选定的研究都没有映射所有三个维度。尽管如此，我们假设当重要社区旨在为就地老年人的生活质量做出贡献时，了解所有这三个问题。