Elderly Women's Quality of Life in A Conflict Border Area of India

Elderly persons have been considered very important member of joint families in India and their number is increasing due to declining fertility and increasing life expectancy. Despite poor health and decreasing functional capacity, elderly persons can lead good quality of life depending upon their physical, psychological and social well beings and condition of environment around them. The Quality of Life (QoL) of elderly women, particularly in border areas, has been inferior to men because of gender based discrimination stemming up from deep cultural and social bias and access to property right. Randomly selected 157 women above 60 year age were surveyed in three blocks of Punjab near India-Pakistan border line for understanding and improving their quality of life. The mean age of respondents was 68 year with mean household size 8.6 belonging to mostly farming (46%) and laborers (45%) families. The QoL scores decreased with increasing age group. The majority of elderly women were dependent on inter-generational understanding and support and this is reflective of the current Ageing Policy of India which prioritizes family as the basic institution of care and support for the elderly people. This study indicated a high degree of correlation between household socio-economic status and quality of life, but not between wealth and quality of life.. A very high proportion of these women suffered from weak eyesight, joint pain, blood pressure and headache. Quality of Life scores do not differ much for family occupations (agriculture and labour) as agricultural holdings are very small.