Short Communication - (2023) Volume 15, Issue 6
The world’s population is ageing rapidly between 2000 and 2050. The proportion of the world's older adults is estimated to double from about 11% to 22%. In absolute terms, this is an expected increase from 605 Million to 2 Billion people over the age of 60. Older people face special physical and mental health challenges which need to be recognized. (WHO -fact sheet - September 2013 on mental health and older adults). Among the elderly population depression complicates the existing morbidity conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and Cerebrovascular accidents. It decreases the quality- of-life, functional ability, increases the mortality, and decreases health care utilization. Mental health problems will have a negative influence on health seeking behavior among older persons.
Health behavior; Mental health; Auto immune diseases; Inferential analyses
Objectives:
• To assess the health seeking behavior and quality of life among older persons.
• To associate the health seeking behavior with selected demographic variables of the older persons.
Ethical clearance
The study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Clearance Committee (IECC). Permission was obtained from the authorities of the community medicine department, SRM medical college. Informed consent was obtained from the older persons [1].
Quantitative research approach and descriptive research design was used to assess health seeking behaviour among 70 older persons in potheri village, kattankulathur, kancheepuram district [2]. Structured questionnaire to assess health seeking behavior and the reliability of the tool is checked using cronbach's alpha Based on standardized Items [3].
Data analysis, both descriptive and inferential analyses were used for data analysis.
• Frequency and percentage distribution of demographic variables of older persons.
• Assessment of the health seeking behaviour among older persons.
• Association between the demographic variables and health seeking behaviour among older persons.
Among 70 older persons 6 (8.6%) of them had inappropriate health seeking behaviour, 43 (61.4%) of them had moderately appropriate health seeking behaviour, 21(30.0%) of them had appropriate health seeking behavior [4]. The p value corresponding the demographic variable “Type of family” is significant at 5% level since it is less than 0.05. Hence we can say that there is significant association between the “Type of family” and “Health Seeking Behaviour” of old age people (Table 1). The p values of all other demographic variables are not significant since they are not less than 0.05. Hence we can say that there is no significant association between age, gender, religion, educational status, monthly income, marital status, having children gender of children, financial status, previous occupation, currently employed and satisfaction at work place” with “Health seeking behaviour of old age people”(Figure 1).
| S.No. | Demographic Variables | Class | Level of Health Seeking Behaviour | Chi-Square Value | DF | P-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inappropriate | Moderately appropriate | Appropriate | ||||||
| 1 | Age | 61- 65 years | 4 | 25 | 11 | 5.674 | 4 | 0.225 |
| 66-70 years | 0 | 15 | 7 | |||||
| 71-75 years | 2 | 3 | 3 | |||||
| 2 | Sex | Male | 1 | 12 | 4 | 0.809 | 2 | 0.667 |
| Female | 5 | 31 | 17 | |||||
| 3 | Religion | Hindu | 6 | 41 | 17 | 4.347 | 4 | 0.361 |
| Christian | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Muslim | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 4 | Educational status | Illiterate | 5 | 20 | 12 | 4.716 | 6 | 0.581 |
| Primary School Education | 1 | 13 | 7 | |||||
| Middle School | 0 | 9 | 2 | |||||
| High School Education | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| 5 | Type of family | Nuclear family | 1 | 17 | 5 | 12.784 | 4 | 0.012* |
| Joint family | 4 | 26 | 16 | |||||
| Extended family | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 6 | Monthly income | <1520 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7.799 | 8 | 0.453 |
| 1521-4555 | 3 | 6 | 6 | |||||
| 4556-7593 | 2 | 22 | 8 | |||||
| 7594-11361 | 1 | 6 | 5 | |||||
| 11,362-15,187 | 0 | 6 | 1 | |||||
| 7 | Marital status | Married | 6 | 37 | 19 | 1.475 | 4 | 0.831 |
| Single | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Widower | 0 | 5 | 2 | |||||
| 8 | Having children | Yes | 6 | 42 | 21 | 0.637 | 2 | 0.727 |
| No | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| 9 | Sex of children | Male | 0 | 17 | 7 | 6.725 | 6 | 0.347 |
| Female | 0 | 5 | 3 | |||||
| Having both male and female children | 6 | 20 | 11 | |||||
| Not Applicable | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| 10 | Financial Status | Independent | 1 | 15 | 3 | 3.391 | 2 | 0.183 |
| Dependent | 5 | 28 | 18 | |||||
| 11 | Previous occupation | Unemployed | 1 | 9 | 9 | 8.998 | 8 | 0.342 |
| Unskilled worker | 5 | 23 | 10 | |||||
| Semiskilled worker | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Skilled worker | 0 | 4 | 1 | |||||
| Clerical, Shop owner, Farmer | 0 | 6 | 0 | |||||
| 12 | Currently employed | Yes | 4 | 30 | 14 | 0.074 | 2 | 0.964 |
| No | 2 | 13 | 7 | |||||
| 13 | Satisfaction at work place | Not satisfied | 3 | 9 | 4 | 3.647 | 4 | 0.456 |
| Moderately satisfied | 1 | 21 | 9 | |||||
| Not Applicable | 2 | 13 | 8 | |||||
Note: *-Significant at 5% level
Table 1: Association between the demographic variables and Health seeking behaviour of old age people.
Figure 1: Level of health seeking behaviour among older persons.
The study results revealed that majority 43 (61.4%) of them had moderately appropriate health seeking behavior and only 21(30.0%) of them had appropriate health seeking behavior. The p value corresponding the demographic variable “Type of family” is significant at 5% level since it is less than 0.05 .Hence we can say that there is significant association between the “Type of family” and “Health Seeking Behaviour” of old age people. This indicates that to promote health and well-being among older persons more motivation and awareness need to be created among older persons and their family members.
Received: 03-Nov-2021 Published: 24-Nov-2021
Copyright:This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
