Attitude of the middle aged adults towards Elderly population at selected setting, Mangaluru

 

Ms Ashlyn Flavia D’Souza¹, Ms Anju Mariya Sunny¹, Ms Jubi Maria Thomas¹,

Ms Sonia Karen Liz Sequera²

¹Basic B’Sc Nursing Students, Father Muller College of Nursing, Mangaluru,

²Assistant Professor, Department of Community Heath Nursing, Father Muller College of Nursing, Mangaluru,

 

ABSTRACT:

Background: Attitudes toward the elderly have been affected by large societal changes that have happened over the past 100 years. Researchers believe Industrialization and modernization have contributed greatly to lowering the power, influence and prestige the elderly once held. Evaluating attitudes on aging in middle aged adults who live with elderly family members and analyzing the conditions that affect life with these elderly people and can lead to differences in attitudes toward elders and are also important in learning how middle aged adults view aging. Such research can generate results that could support an intervention plan to promote intergenerational solidarity in the family environment. Objectives: 1. To assess the attitude of the middle aged adults towards the elderly population; 2. To find the association of attitude of adults with selected demographic variables. Methods: A quantitative approach with cross sectional descriptive study design was used for the present study. Convenience sampling technique was used to select the subjects and the sample size was 100. Tool used to collect the data was baseline proforma and attitude scale towards elderly population to assess the attitude. Results: The result of the study findings show that 76(76%) of the middle aged adults showed favourable attitude towards elderly population whereas 24(24%) had neutral attitude. There was a significant association between gender and the the attitude of middle aged adults towards elderly population. (p=0.049< 0.05 level of significance). Conclusion: The study revealed that most of the middle aged adults showed positive attitude towards elderly people and the males in the study had greater positive attitude when compared to females.

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The stark reality of the ageing scenario in India is that there are 77 million older persons in India; the number is growing to 177 million in another 25 years. The increase number in ageing population is related to medical advancement, new technology and new life style. Increase in lifespan also resulting from functional disabilities, creating a need of assistance require by the older persons to manage their activities of daily living¹.

Attitudes toward others, defined as the feelings and beliefs that individuals have towards other people (Kogan, 1961), can refer to various aspects such as race, gender, or the age of a person². Attitudes toward the aged or toward aging may affect the behaviors directed toward an older person. The middle-aged group in our industrial society has often been blamed for causing a major share of the negative views of aging by equating old age with loss of productivity in personal and work lives (Scha;e, 1973). Others have suggested that negative attitudes may arise from the difficult choices and problems forced upon the middle aged by the economic and emotional needs and demands of the older generation³.

 

A cross sectional study done to assess  the 171 young adults attitude towards elderly population at Florida on concluded that social intimacy (one aspect of quality of contact)was a significant predictor of a person’s attitude towards a specific familiar older adults⁴.

 

A 60th national survey in 2004 was conducted on old age dependency ration revealed that dependency was higher in rural area than in the urban areas. With regard state of economic development, a higher number of males in rural areas, 313 per 1000 males, were fully dependent as compared with 297 per 1000 males in urban area. For female an opposite trend was observed. Over all 75% of the economically dependent elderly were supported by their children and grandchildren. Over 81% of the elderly confessed to having increased stress and psychological problems in modern society, while77.6% complained about their mother in law or daughter in law conflicts being on the increase⁵.

 

The middle aged adult attitude towards elderly persons can be positive or negative. The older persons are helpless, disabled, but children are less in number to care for them, and also occupied with job. So, most of the older people are left isolated at home and most of the children perceive their elderly parents as burden, so they may send them to the old age home. But there are some people who take care of their elderly parents by providing care, good living facility, proper communication etc. The number of old age homes in our country and state are on a rise. Therefore, the  investigators wanted to assess the attitude of middle aged adults towards elderly population at Mangaluru.  

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1.    To determine the attitude of the middle aged adults towards elderly population.

2.    To find the association of attitude of middle aged adults towards elderly population with selected demographic variables.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A descriptive study was conducted in the month of July in a selected Community in Mangaluru. A sample consists of 100 middle aged adults who met the inclusion criteria and were assigned to the group. A cross sectional descriptive survey was conducted in the month of july in a selected area of mangaluru on 100 middle aged adults who fulfilled the inclusion criteria.

 

Inclusion Criteria

1.  Middle aged adults who are in the group of 40- 55.

 

Exclusion Criteria

1.    Those having physical and mental disability

2.    Relegious people who dont stay in a family

 

Hypothesis

H₁: - There will be significant association of attitude towards elderly population and selected demographic variables.

 

Research approach

The research approach used for the study is quantitative approach.

 

Research design

The study design used for this study was cross sectional descriptive research design.

 

Subject

The sample for the present study comprised of 100 the middle aged adults. Sampling technique used was convenience sampling.

 

Data collection instruments

1. Demographic profile

Baseline data consists of 12 items seeking information about Gender, Age, Educational status, Religion, Marital status, Family, Area of living, Occupation, Income per month, State,  Living with parents,  Number of elderly persons at Home, Health problems, Elderly people with health problems.

 

2. Attitude scale towards elderly population

The tool to assess the attitude of middle aged adults towards elderly population consisted of 30 items. The tool used 5 point Likert scale consisting of positive and negative worded items. The maximum score was 150. This scale was graded as Unfavourable, Neutral, and Favourable depending on the score. This was a self developed tool to assess the attitude towards elderly.

 

Validity and Reliability of the tool

Validity of the tool was assessed by obtaining opinion from 5 nurse educators of various departments. The reliability of the tool was 0.87.

 

Data collection process

A formal written permission was obtained from the authority concerned. Data was collected from middle aged adults in the selected Community. Prior to the data collection the investigator familiarized themselves with subjects and explained them the purpose of the study. Informed consent was obtained from the seletected subjects and the average time taken by each subject was approximately 15 minutes. The collected data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

 

RESULTS:

The data was analyzed in SPSS Version 16. Majority of the subjects (76%) showed favourable attitude towards elderly population whereas less than half of the subjects (24%) had neutral attitude.

 

Figure 1 shows frequency and percentage distribution of attitude of middle aged adults towards elderly population.

 

Figure 1 shows frequency and percentage distribution of attitude of middle aged adults towards elderly population

 

Data presented in the Table 1 shows that the mean attitude score was favourable in the personal and social domain i.e. 81.54% and 70.54% respectively, whereas in area of psychological (67.5%), spiritual (70.85%), belief (63.66%), neutral attitude was found towards elderly population.

 

 

 

Table 1: Domain wise Mean, Mean% and Standard deviation of attitude scale    N=100

Domain	Item	Maximum score	Mean	SD	Mean% attitude score	Grading of attitude score
Personal	7	35	28.54	6.98	81.54%	Favourable
Psychological	6	30	20.25	3.11	67.5%	Neutral
Social	10	50	35.26	5.81	70.52%	Favourable
Spiritual	4	20	14.17	2.26	70.85%	Neutral
Belief	3	15	9.55	1.97	63.66%	Neutral

 

 

The p value computed between attitude of middle aged adults towards elderly population with the gender was p=0.049 <0.05, at 0.05 level of significance. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected. There was a significant association of attitude of middle aged adults with gender of the subjects.

 

Sample Characteristics:

The result of the study showed that more than half of subjects were male. Less than half of the subjects were found in the age group of 40-45 years. One third of the subjects completed high school studies. Half of the subjects were Hindus. Majority of the subjects were married. Most of them were living in the nuclear family and were residing in rural area. One fourth were self-employed, other one fourth were home makers. Less than half had their monthly income more than Rs 10, 000/-. Half of the subjects were living along with the parents; almost half of the subjects had 1-2 elderly parents at home.

 

Majority of the elderly population in this study had health problems like diabetes mellitus (47.61%), hypertension (42.85%), respiratory diseases (21.42%), cardiac diseases (14.28%), musculo-skeletal diseases (11.9%) and neurological diseases (11.9%).

 

DISCUSSION:

Some of the findings of the study support the information available from the existing studies. A study conducted to assess the nurse’s attitude towards older patients in Israel, revealed that 61% were females, 44% of subjects were between the age group of 36-45 years, 64% of subjects were registered nurse with the BA Degree, 62% of the subjects were Jewish, all the study subjects (100%) were working as a nurse, 62.3% of the subjects living with older adults⁶.       

 

Another study to assess the young adult’s attitudes toward older adults in Florida revealed 64.9% of subjects showed positive attitude and mean attitude score in general was 117.01; mean attitude score towards most familiar older adult was 22.81. This study also revealed that there is no statistically significant association (p=0.63) between young adult’s gender and attitude towards older adults⁴.

 

The present study throws light on the attitude of middle aged adults towards the elderly population. The study findings will help the nurses to provide the health awareness for the middle aged adults and improving their attitude towards elderly people thus sensitizing them the need to accept elderly. The nurse educators have the responsibility to educate the student nurses and nursing professionals regarding the care of elderly, so that the society can be educated to take care of elderly. The policy makers such as Nurse Administration can cope with the initiatives based on the findings of the study which will influence the overall care and attitude of elderly towards a positive side. Nurse administrators and managers must plan a separate budget for continuing education program related to increasing awareness towards elderly care which inturn helps to improve the attitude of middle aged adults and general public.

 

CONCLUSION:

The middle aged adult’s attitude towards elderly persons can be favorable or Unfavorable. Many older persons are helpless, disabled, Most of the older people are left isolated at home and most of the children perceive their elderly parents as burden, thereby sending them to the old age home. But there are some people who take care of their elderly parents by providing care, good living facility, proper communication etc. We can also see that number of old age homes in our country and state are on a rise. Therefore, differential attitudes are needed to be assessed. So the investigators conducted a study to assess the attitude of the middle aged adults towards elderly population at selected setting. The finding of the study proved that most of the middle aged adults have favorable attitude towards elderly population.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

We express our sincere thanks to (Prof) Sr Kathreena M.U, Department of Community Health Nursing for her significant contribution.

 

REFERENCE:

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2.     Gluth, S., Ebner, N. and Schmiedek, F. (2010). Attitudes toward younger and older adults: The German Aging Semantic Differential. International Journal of Behavioral Development, [online] 34(2), pp.147-158. Available at: http://www.psych.ufl.edu/ebnerlab/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2016/09/Gluth_Ebner_2010.pdf [Accessed 8 Aug. 2016].

3.     Speece, H. (1979). Attitudes of a Selected Sample of Middle-Aged Women Toward Aging. Student Scholarship: Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication Department. DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. [cited 2016 Aug 08]. Available from: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/aglecdiss/47

4.     Malec, M. (2005). Oung adults' attitudes toward older adults: the influence of contact with a "most familiar" older adult, intimacy, and young adult demographics. Doctor of philosophy. University of florida.[cited 2013 august 16];1(1):1-180. Available from: https://archive.org/stream/youngadultsattit00male/youngadultsattit00male_djvu.txt

5.     Nath A., Ingle G (2008). Geriatric health in india: concerns and solutions. Indian journal of community medicine, 33(4), p.214.

6.     Topaz M, Doron I. Nurses' attitudes toward older patients in acute care in israel. Online J Issues Nursing. 2013 apr 15; 18(2):9.

 

 

 

 

 

Received on 26.09.2017       Modified on 15.10.2017

Accepted on 19.01.2018      ©A&V Publications All right reserved