Health Status and Caring Practice among Elderly People in Jaljale VDC, Tehrathum District, Nepal

Abstract

Population ageing is an inevitable outcome of the demographic transition of population from high level of fertility and mortality to lower ones and increased in the life expectancy at birth. The proportion of ageing population is increased all over the world. But the share size is higher in developed than developing countries. On the other hand the growth rate of elderlypopulation is higher in developing countries than developed. Similarly, thereis different in the process of ageing with respect to modernization andtechnological diffusion in developed and developing countries respectively. The study aimed to explore the health status and caring practice amongelderly people in Jaljale VDC, Tehrathum district by using primary sourcesof information obtained from 165 elderly people ages 60 years and above.Among Khas, Janajati and Dalit each ethnic group consisted of 55respondents on the basis of one respondent from a house. This studyexamined causal effects of variables considered were grouped as demographic, social, economic and media utilizations. Collected data were coded, recoded, tabulated and generated some indices as: Index of health status and index of caring practice. Selected variables were coded in ordinal scale and tested by Gamma Coefficients to analyze the strength of associations between concerned variables. Following variables were observedto have strong association with health status and caring practice. Five strong variables in relation to health status of elderly people were:facilities of toilet (-.680 Gamma coefficient), level of income (-.471 Gammacoefficient), family size (-.394 Gamma coefficient), education attainment(.462 Gamma coefficients), and marital status 9.378 Gamma coefficient).Similarly, seven strong variables in relation to caring practice of elderlypeople were: literacy status (.539 Gamma coefficients), access of television (.-537Gamma coefficient), self mobile (-.445 Gamma coefficient), family size(.451 Gamma coefficient), radio listeners (-.410 Gamma coefficient),education attainment (.403 Gamma coefficients) and marital status (-.548Gamma coefficient). Overall scenario of observed variables indicated that among three ethnic communities Khas and Janajati have better positions of health status and caring practice followed by Dalit.