Active Ageing and Quality of Life of Rural Elderly Women

Abstract

Ageing is an inevitable change in the lifespan of an individual. India's old age population has increased from 19 million in 1947 to 100 million in the 21st century. According to the United Nations World Population ageing reports that the grey population has immensely increased from 9.2% in 1990 to 11.7 % in 2013, and it's expected to triple by the year 2050 growing from 737 million to over 2 billion persons 60 years of age and older. Ageing is a period of physical, mental and social decline which brings a host of challenges to the individual and the family. Hence it requires special attention at all levels, the micro, mezzo and the macro levels of the society. The concept of healthy aging, Positive ageing and successful aging are used to help people to change their negative attitude towards aging. These new terminologies are significant in making people realize and bring about a change in the minds of senior citizens as well as the society. This study aimed to understand the level of active ageing among the rural elderly women and its impact on the quality of life.330 elderly women from 12 villages of Sriperumbudur associated with the Mobile medical care of Help age India were interviewed using census method. The study was conducted only with the young old between 60- 75 years. 73.6 percent were between 60 and 70 years and 26.4 percent of the respondents were between 70 and 75 years. All the three major religious groups were represented, 85.5percent were Hindus. Majority of the respondents 73.3percent had no education. It was interesting to know that majority of the respondents were self-reliant (83.94 percent) and 82.73 percent of them took care of them by themselves without any support from their families. 76.9 percent of the senior women worked based on their competencies, 75.5 percent of them were involved in plenty of activities everyday including their occupation and household chores, which enabled them to be physically active. The chi square values that there is a significant association between the overall active ageing score, religion &number of members in the family. The other demographic variables like age, occupation, income marital status, age at marriage, number of children in the family and Socio – Economic Status were not significantly associated with the overall active aging score. The study surprisingly shows that most women enjoyed freedom and Independence in their family which is a positive indicator of active ageing.

Save as a Favourite

Author Information
Hannah Evangeline Sangeetha Theophilus, Loyola College, India
Raja Samuel Samuel, Madras School of Social Work, India

• Category: AGen2018

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

All Posts