Elderly Women Abuse – A Reason to Move to Old Age Homes of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

A descriptive study was conducted among 80 elderly women using convenient sampling technique at SriVirdhasharam old age home run by SNR Sons Charitable Trust and Home for the aged run by Missionaries of Charity, Puliakulam, Coimbatore, to identify the prevalence of elderly women abuse which makes them move to OAHS. The finding reveals that 70% of them were between 60 and, 70 years. Half of them had some form of assets and lived with their spouse previously, while 50% had married daughter, and 30% had sons. Eighty percent of them had one or more medical problems like Diabetes mellitus, Hypertension and mobility problems. Most of them expected help from their inmates and others in the OAHS. Elderly women move tooldage home due to 60% of them relied on others for carrying out their activities of daily living. About 40%of them complained about the limitation of freedom and psychological abuse. "In 40% of the elderly women, the researcher had poor eye contact and withdrawn behavior". The major finding in the study was that many of the elderly women had married daughters; financial abuse was more than one or the other form of abuse.