Means of support for elderly persons and their living preferences : a case study of Kampala District

Abstract

This study was aimed at establishing the main factors that determined elderly persons' living arrangements in Kampala. This undertaking was made in response to recent socio demographic trends that have been threatening the traditional care systems of the elderly, and which are bound to have serious implications for the future elderly population's• housing needs. Data were collected from 306 elderly respondents selected using a simple random sampling design. A significantly higher proportion of males were found to own property than females. A significantly higher proportion of elderly males than females were found to have earned pension income, salary income, rent income and accumulated wealth. Also, a significantly higher proportion of married respondents earned pension income and salaried income, than widowed respondents. And, significantly higher proportions of better educated respondents were found to have earned pension income, salary income and accumulated wealth, than the lesser educated respondents. There were also intergenerational transfers of assistance and they occurred from the intermediate (or working age) generation to the elderly generation, and back to the dependent (or younger generation). Adult children (and relatives) provided financial assistance to their elderly parents. The male, married and better educated respondents received more financial assistance. These subgroups also had significantly larger mean numbers of dependents to support, and consequently spent more on their dependents, than their respective counterparts did. The elderly respondents' most preferred living arrangement was living alone with a spouse, followed by living with an unmarried daughter, and then by living alone, living with an unmarried son, living with a married son and living with a married daughter. Recommendations included requesting effective provision of reliable social security structures like pension schemes from government. Government intervention programmes were also suggested and these ranged from: providing progressively mote financial support to elderly persons with larger numbers of orphans; to assuming complete responsibility for these orphans. Possible areas of future research were mentioned as: the establishment of a comprehensive earlier-life model for living preferences; inquiring into the knowledge and practice that people have of saving for old age; determining the extent of support provided by elderly persons to orphans; finding out what type of support the elderly population would expect to receive from the government; studying the effects that health status has on living preferences; studying the factors that affect the elderly population's demand for community homes in East Africa; carrying' out sociological studies to discover what elderly persons' living preferences are with special attention been paid to areas such as the influence of family ties; determining the main constraints older persons face during their strife to derive financial security; gaining deeper understanding about the reasons for kin refraining from providing support to their elderly relatives; and measuring the extent to which internal migration by older persons affects their living preferences.