Activities of daily living among elderly people - age and gender differences

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of age and gender differences in performance of activities of daily living among 400 older people (male=163 and female=237), aged60 years and above, selected by the method of convenience sampling from urban and rural areas of SPSR Nellore district (A.P.). The quantitative research approach and descriptive design were adopted for the study. A structured interview schedule was used for collecting information from the respondents individually. Data analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study revealed that In the age group 60-70 years , there is statistically significant association between men and women the activities of daily living that are totally done by a woman such as preparing food by self (p<0.05), ability to do housework (p<0.05), ability to wash clothes (p<0.05), ability to go shopping (p<0.05). In the age group between 71-80 years, the researchers did not observe any significant gender differences in any of the activities of daily living. There was a significant difference in performing all the activities of daily living among older adults across a spectrum of age. However, women consistently reported more problems than-men in those activities that are done by a woman.