Gender and Residency Effects on Elderly Health in Turkey

Abstract

The proportion of the elderly population grows not only in Turkey but also in the whole world due to reduced fertility rate and extended life expectancy. While 65 age and over population quintile constituted only 4.3 % of the total population in 1990, the proportion of the elderly population raised to 7.2% as of late 2010. This study is based on the data collected from total 1,540 respondents at 65 ages and over who were interviewed in the Health Interview Survey 2008. Main aim of this study is providing a description of the socio-demographic characteristics of the elderly population and investigating the gender and residential effects on their daily activities and presence of chronic diseases. Both being an elder female and living in rural areas are found to be significant risk factors for some certain diseases. Additionally, both elder females and elder population living in rural areas assess their health poorer than males and those in urban areas, respectively. Therefore, defining policies especially focusing on difficulties of women and elders in rural areas seems to be a necessity. In order to increase quality of life of overall elderly population, attaching further importance to the elderly care services, establishing more facilities and employing more personnel might be considered as precautions.