As we all know, when you get older your body does to. Literally! Everyday tasks get a slight bit harder as your body is unable to keep up. Despite the aging of the body, many elderly people are still able to retain their independence and continue to do their favorite daily activities.
In developing countries, like Nigeria, aging really does take it toll. When elderly people are faced with bodily issues, because of the lack of resources, education and access to health care facilities, it is often impossible for them to get the care that they need to prevent them from ending up with a disability. So the rates at which disabilities that affect their ADL (activities of daily living) for many Nigerians are very high.
High rates of disabilities are often seen in Nigerian women, those who are illiterate and lack education, poor, living in rural areas and have had a lower quality of life throughout their life. People who have or are at high risk for disabilities, typically show high rates of depression. People suffering from high rates of disabilities, depression or both typically are more dependent on others and need more formal or informal care. Though in developing countries, with increasing modernization and lack of institutional care, many elders are not able to gain access to better care.
With this knowledge, Nigeria and other developing countries, need to do many things to ease the life of its elders. For one, Nigeria needs to provide better economic, education and healthcare for its young to give them better health prospects in old age. Secondly, Nigeria needs to provide better healthcare for elders who are sick and have mental illnesses and institutional care for those that who lack the kin network to provide informal care or have severe disabilities that need professional care and supervision.
References:
Gureje, O., Ademola, A. and Olley, B. O. (2008), Depression and Disability: Comparisons with Common Physical Conditions in the Ibadan Study of Aging. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 56: 2033–2038. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.01956.x
Gureje, O., Ogunniyi, A., Kola, L. and Afolabi, E. (2006), Functional Disability in Elderly Nigerians: Results from the Ibadan Study of Aging. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 54: 1784–1789. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2006.00944.x
I. S. Abdulraheem, A. R. Oladipo, and M. O. Amodu, “Prevalence and Correlates of Physical Disability and Functional Limitation among Elderly Rural Population in Nigeria,” Journal of Aging Research, vol. 2011, Article ID 369894, 13 pages, 2011. doi:10.4061/2011/369894
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