Most developed world countries have accepted the chronological age of 65 years as a definition of 'elderly' or older person, but like many westernized concepts, this does not adapt well to the situation in Africa. While this definition is somewhat arbitrary, it is many times associated with the age at which one can begin to receive pension benefits. At the moment, there is no United Nations standard numerical criterion, but the UN agreed cutoff is 60+ years to refer to the older population.
Published in Chapter:
Measuring the Poverty of Elderly People with Needs Analysis in Turkey
Emine Özmete (Ankara University, Turkey)
Copyright: © 2015
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-7484-4.ch008
Abstract
This study aimed to analyze the economic, social, and cultural needs of elderly people to determine the poverty thereof in Ankara (the capital city of Turkey).The economic, social, and cultural needs of individuals, which are among the indicators taken into consideration by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in measurement of human poverty index, were subject to research in measurement of poverty of elderly people. Face-to-face surveys were conducted with individuals over 65 years of age in the study, with 2.522 surveys qualified for evaluation. It was seen that the majority of elderly people were covered by social security. The elderly people reported their health to be good. They stated satisfaction regarding interindividual relationships with regard to social needs. However, it was concluded that the income of elderly people was not sufficient, and that they could not sufficiently afford electrical power and water invoices, medicine, food, and clothing expenses.