Analysis of Home Safety of the Elderly Living in City and Rural Areas

Analysis of Home Safety of the Elderly Living in City and Rural Areas

1.Absract

Physiological changes and chronic diseases arising during aging process increase risk of accident of the elderly, especially the elderly living alone at their homes. Home accidents are the most commonly health problem in the elderly. This study was carried out to describe home safety of the elderly living in a city or rural area using a home safety checklist. 512 living in Turkey (330 in city; 182 in rural area) were evaluated via face-to-face interview using a home safety checklist during a period between December and March in 2007. In addition to sociodemographics, a questionnaire including home characteristics and life style of participants was applied. To describe home safety level, Home Safety Checklist was used.

2-Introduction

Aging, which is a part of life and a nonrecoverable process. Developments in the field of tecnology,health and nutrition increasing life expectancy in the general population has led to an increased incidence of elderly population. Especially in industrialized countries, this increase is faster. The increase in elderly population by bringing with it social problems, particularly affecting the family structure of the elderly living alone is cause Depending on the time during the aging process in human organism, physical, physiological and psychological changes are emerging. Decrease with aging occur in the physical abilities, to continue their activities of daily living and home-related poses an obstacle to the execution of work. Physiological changes and the age of progress emerged due to chronic diseases, especially those living alone at home often face with the risk of accidents . An important part of the problems faced by the elderly home accidents constituted. Physiological changes and dementia as well as some chronic diseases, nörooftalmalojik findings, progressive hearing loss, posture, balance and gait disturbances and sensory changes, has led to increased risk of accidents. The elderly, the most important preventive safety applications, one of the age-related physiological deficiency in developing corrective to troubleshoot instruments (hearing aid, glasses, etc..) Usage as a domestic accident may lead to removal of conditions must be determined. Therefore, in recent years in elderly home safety and home safety inspection and control increased the importance of the list. In this context, is widely used in the field of health inspection and control lists, and application tools are the most important ergonomic evaluation.

3-Explict Statemnet Of The Study Objective İncluding Operational Definition:

This study used a home safety check list and the elderly living at home in our country, the security situation in the house and emerged with aging in terms of accident risks in order to examine the status of housing are planned.

Sample Groups:

Sample 1:The elderly who is living in the city

Sample 2:The elderly who is living in the rural areas

Variables:

Age This variables;the elderly who is living in the city

Gender and the rural areas used to investigate the

Education demograhic datas.

Marriage Status

Occupational Status

House type This variables; the elderly who is living in the city

Private rooms and the rural areas was used to examine the status of

Domestic Availability their home.

Satisfaction:

Financial Status:

Living Arrengement: This variables;the elderly who is living in the city and the

Leisure Activities rural areas was used to examine the their life style.

Security Score

p: is degree of freedom: In statistics, the number of degrees of freedom is the number of values in the final calculation of a statistic that are free to vary

4-Methodology Section:

This descriptive type of study,we selected 512 elder people with random sampling method.330 of 512 elder person which we select in the city and 182 of 512 which we collect in the rurely areas among december to march 2007 in 7 geographical regions of Turkey in Denizli, Izmir, Aydın, Antalya, Mersin, Ankara, Konya, Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Trabzon, Sinop and Zonguldak provinces. In collection of data, as well as demographic information, household status and forms of life questionnaire stating where questions were administered. To determine the level of home security developed by the National Security Council, consisting of 65 questions, Home Security Checklist is used. National Security Council, the score at 1-7 in the perfect home for safety aspects, between 8-14 scores well; 15 and on the scores were assessed as dangerous. A questionnaire containing sociodemographic and National Security Council with the elderly living at home with the method to be verbatim comments will be reviewed their homes Pamukkale University School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation was completed by senior students. Chi-square test was used for evaluating data.

5-Data Analysis Section

Pearson's chi-square (χ2) test is the best-known of several chi square test – statistical procedures whose results are evaluated by reference to the chi square distrubition. Its properties were first investigated by Karl Pearson. In contexts where it is important to make a distinction between the test statistic and its distribution, names similar to Pearson Χ-squared test or statistic are used.
It tests a null hypothesis stating that the frequency distrubition of certain events observed in a sample is consistent with a particular theoretical distribution. The events considered must be mutually exclusive and have total probability 1. A common case for this is where the events each cover an outcome of a categorial variable. A simple example is the hypothesis that an ordinary six-sided dia is "fair", i.e., all six outcomes are equally likely to occur. Pearson's chi-square is the original and most widely-used chi-square test.
Definition
Pearson's chi-square is used to assess two types of comparison: tests of goodness of fit and tests of independence. A test of goodness of fit establishes whether or not an observed frequency distrubition differs from a theoretical distribution. A test of independence assesses whether paired observations on two variables, expressed in a contingency tables, are independent of each other – for example, whether people from different regions differ in the frequency with which they report that they support a political candidate.
The first step in the chi-square test is to calculate the chi-square statistics.In order to avoid ambiguity, the value of the test-statistic is denoted by X2 rather than χ2: this also serves as a reminder that the distribution of the test statistic is not exactly that of a chi-square random variable. However some authors do use the χ2 notation for the test statistic. An exact test which does not rely on using the approximate χ2 distribution is Fisher’s exact test ,this is significantly more accurate in evaluating the significance level of the test, especially with small numbers of observation.
The chi-square statistic is calculated by finding the difference between each observed and theoretical frequency for each possible outcome, squaring them, dividing each by the theoretical frequency, and taking the sum of the results. A second important part of determining the test statistic is to define the degrees of freedom of the test: this is essentially the number of observed frequencies adjusted for the effect of using some of those observations to define the "theoretical frequencies".
Results:

11.2% of the elderly living in the city , 14.4% of the elderly living in rural areas whose age is 80 and over age in the range

TABLE 1:Examination of demografic data for elderly people living in the city and in rural areas

|Variables | CİTY | RURAL |
| | | |
|Age | | |
|65-69 age | | |
|70-79 age | | |
|> 80 age | | |
| | | |
|Gender | | |
| | n % | n % |
| | | |
| |171 51.8 |78 42.8 |
| |122 36.9 |78 42.8 |
| |37 11.2 |26 14.3 |
|Woman | 189 57.3 |107 58.8 |
|Man |141 42.7 |45 41.2 |
|EDUCATİON | | |
|Literacy does not know | 19.1 19.1 |61 33.5 |
|Literate | | |
|Primary School |37.3 37.3 |82 45.1 |
| |10.3 10.3 |9 4.9 |
| Middle School |16.7 16.7 |16 8.8 |
| | | |
|High school |9.1 9.1 |9 4.9 |
|University |7.6 7.6 |5 2.7 |
|Marriage Status | | |
|Single | 43 13 |18 9.9 |
|Married |249 75.5 |150 82.4 |
| |38 11.5 |14 7.7 |
| Divorced | | |
|Occupational Status | | |
| | | |
| Works |294 89 |154 84.6 |
| |36 11 |28 15.4 |
|Not working / Retired | | |

TABLE 2: An analysis of the homes of elderly living in rural areas and in the city

|Variables | CİTY | RURAL | |
| | | | |
|House type | | | |
| | n % | n % | p |
| | | | |
|Detached | 128 36.8 | 157 96.3 | |
| | | | |
| Apartment |202 61.2 |25 13.7 |0.0001 |
| | | | |
|Private rooms | | | |
|Yes | 211 63.9 |98 53.8 | |
|No |41 12.4 |46 25.3 | |
|Have shared |78 33.9 |38 20.9 |0.001 |
|Domestic availability | | | |
|Good | 218 66.1 |106 58.2 | |
|Bad |112 33.9 |76 42.7 |0.05 |
|Satisfaction | | | |
|Satisfied | 233 71 |107 58.8 | |
| | | | |
| Not satisfied |97 29.4 |75 41.2 |0.007 |
| | | | |
|Financial Situation | | | |
|Self-sufficient | 257 77.9 |109 59.9 | |
| | | | |
| Children looking |56 17 |52 28.6 |0.0001 |
| |17 5.1 |1 11.5 | |
| Relatives looking | | | |

Table 3 The examination of the life style of elderly living in rural areas and in the city

|Variables | CİTY | RURAL | |
| | | | |
|Living arrangement | | | |
| | | | |
| Single | | | |
| | | | |
| With his wife | | | |
| | | | |
| With relatives | | | |
|Leisure activities | | | |
| | n % | n % | p |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| |59 17.9 |30 16.5 | |
| | | |0.05 |
| |196 59.4 |112 61.5 | |
| |75 22.7 |40 22 | |
| | | | |
| Participation is | 130 39.4 | 48 26.4 | |
| |200 60.6 |134 73.4 |0.003 |
| Accession No | | | |
| | | | |
|Security score | | | |
|Excellent | 7 2.1 | 0.5 | |
| Well |76 23.0 |27 14.8 |0.027 |
| Bad |247 74.9 |154 84.6 | |

The information about situation of old peoples houses are presented in Table 2. About %59,4 percent of old people living in cities, and %61,5 percent of old people living in rural areas stated that they live with their husbands/wifes together. When results of Home Security and Control list are inspected; mean number of old people living in cities is 20.61±8.18, while mean number of old people living in rural areas is 25,16±9,59. About %74,9 percentage of houses of people living in cities are detected bad in security criterion, %23 are considered good and %2,1 are perfect. In rural areas however, %84,6 are detected bad, %14,8 are good and %0,5 are perfect. (Table 3)

Debate:

Every year, many old people get injured by an accident in their own houses, or near it. Most of injuries are caused by preventable dangers. Using house security and control list with regular periods, gives chance to value condition again, which leads possibility to make those dangers and risks obsolote.

In our study, old people living in city and rural areas are found similiar by means of age and gender. This result shows that,HSCL results are not affected this two factors.Educational status of these two groups were examined, the higher the educational level of those living in cities and thus are better home security scores were observed. In our study, 86.3% of those living in rural areas' reputation continued living in their houses and 53.8%of living in rural areas whose have a special room ,we have been identified. Proportion of people living in houses in the city (38.8%) lower than those living in rural areas, although the cities have the people in the private room rate is higher (69.9%).We think that it is significant to consider this situation, while arranging house by means of security. According to home safety checklist,reaching domestic usability for both elderly groups have similiar charecteristics,the average score was not effective on. However, a higher proportion of elderly living in rural areas in the (41.2%) stated that they are not satisfied with our home security-related problems that indicate a large size. 40.1% of those living in rural areas in need of financial support to someone else, in protection from danger at home to prevent the necessary ergonomic regulations is an important financial problem. In our study, we have control in the city (74.9%) and of the houses in rural areas (84.6%) a large proportion of unsafe and risky as to fall hazard was observed. For those living in the city, to live in the apartment, the financial situation is good to be home and satisfied with the condition are important factors in domestic security. For old people living in rural areas however, having poor education, living in a private house and being financially dependent raises the security score, and leads danger for security of people. Our results are also compatible with literature The surver used in our study, includes the different characteristics of house and different activities made in house, which allows to evaluate and be prepared against accident risks under each sub-topic.
For old people living in rural areas however, having poor education, living in a private house and being financially dependent raises the security score, and leads danger for security of people. Our results are also compatible with literature . The surver used in our study, includes the different characteristics of house and different activities made in house, which allows to evaluate and be prepared against accident risks under each sub-topic. (1,2) %74.9 percent of people living in cities and %86 percent of people living in rural areas have bad security score, which shows they are unprotected agains various accidents and falls. Those risks are similiar, both for old people living in apartments and private houses.
Of each chapter house in terms of accident risk assessment and risk profile will reveal its relation with problems which occur with aging also are thought to be investigated. Moreover, determining the injury accident record form is important for audit and control systems. In light of all these records and data will be at home with ergonomic regulations reduce the risk of accidents increasing aging, the elderly and more healthy life with a higher level of quality of life can continue to take appropriate measures are required.

6-Ethical Consideration and Limitations:

While we are doing a research on the elderly to learn their life,we respect their private life.So, we take care of shouldn’t be revealed their names and other personel information.

7-Research Results and Recommendations:

In line with the results of our study, home security, the importance of quality of life is emphasized once again. Ergonomic and architectural creation of suitable habitat many risk eliminating the factors, will reduce the risk of injury. In this context, the health staff by producing a joint project with the architects of the houses in the community who live a healthy life, suitable for all individuals, especially the elderly are thought to be present. Also in this issue of local government, civil society organizations and government to develop policies and strategic plans are required.

8-Reference:

www.korhek.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson's_chi-square_test