Socio-economic and health status of the elders – a case study of elders of mysore city

Changes in the socio-economic aspects of the society lead to changes in the bondage of family values which in turns lead to changes in the attitude of the people towards the elders in the society. The elders in the society used to receive lot of prominence in the family in the older days because of strong bondage. But due to changes in the family values, leading to loosening of the bondage the elders are not getting as much importance as they used to earlier which is responsible for drastic changes in the socio, economic and health status of the elders. It is in this context the present study aims to analyse the socio-economic and Health status of the elders in an urban center taking Mysore city as a case study. The study is based on the field survey carried out by the researcher. The city has a total 65 wards; out of this 10 wards were selected based on the random sampling. A total of 409 elders, consisting 239 females and 170 males were interviewed using questionnaires. The study found out that around 40% of the elders were illiterates of whom 70% were females. Further the study reveals that 80% of the elders were nonworkers of whom 68% were females. Around 50% of the elders had reported disability, 55.3% of them were again females and 19% of the elders were widows and only 4% of the elders were widowers. The study reveals that the elders especially elderly women have relatively poor socio, economic and health status. So, the study concluded that, elders especially women need better care, more facilities from the government and the family.