Priority Research Centre for Generational Health and Ageing, School of Medicine and Health, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia.
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
PLoS One. 2020 Oct 2;15(10):e0238693. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238693. eCollection 2020.
Most research depicts older adults as needing personal care, with limited research on older adults' contributions in the lives of others in developing countries like Ghana. The purpose of the study was to examine the personal care provision and socio-demographic correlates of personal care provision by older adult inpatients in Ghana.
A hospital-based survey was conducted among 400 consecutively surveyed older adult inpatients at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in southern Ghana. Stata 15 was used to analyse the data. The relationship between personal care and older adult inpatients' socio-demographic characteristics were analysed using the chi-square test. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed.
Overall, 28% of older adult inpatients provided personal care. Participants were mostly females, married or cohabiting, completed at most junior high school, Christians, urban residents, not working and living with their immediate family. Primarily, most participants provided personal care to one person, once a week, and one-hour duration. Nearly three-quarters of participants provided personal care to someone who lives with them. After adjustment, male older adults were 50% less likely to and urban residents were 83% more likely to provide personal care. Being single, separated or divorced was statistically significantly associated with personal care provision, however, were not statistically significant after adjusting for sex and residence. A post hoc analysis testing for interaction revealed no relationship existing between sex and marital status concerning personal care provision (p = 0.106).
Female and urban resident older adult inpatients in Ghana are not just passive receivers of care but also provide personal care to others with functional difficulties, independent on age. It further draws attention to the need for policies and programs that can support older adults, particularly females and urban residents, to be productive in the later life.
大多数研究描绘老年人需要个人护理，而关于发展中国家（如加纳）老年人在他人生活中的贡献的研究有限。本研究的目的是考察加纳老年住院患者提供个人护理的情况及其与社会人口统计学特征的关系。
在加纳南部的科姆福·阿诺克耶教学医院，对 400 名连续调查的老年住院患者进行了一项基于医院的调查。使用 Stata 15 分析数据。使用卡方检验分析个人护理与老年住院患者社会人口统计学特征之间的关系。采用多变量逻辑回归分析。
总体而言，28%的老年住院患者提供个人护理。参与者主要是女性、已婚或同居、完成初中教育、基督教徒、城镇居民、不工作和与直系亲属生活在一起。大多数参与者主要为一个人提供个人护理，每周一次，每次一小时。近四分之三的参与者为与他们同住的人提供个人护理。调整后，男性老年人提供个人护理的可能性降低 50%，而城市居民提供个人护理的可能性增加 83%。单身、分居或离婚与提供个人护理有统计学显著关联，但在调整性别和居住地点后不再具有统计学意义。事后分析测试交互作用，结果表明，在提供个人护理方面，性别和婚姻状况之间不存在关系（p=0.106）。
加纳的女性和城市老年住院患者不仅是护理的被动接受者，而且还为有功能困难的其他人提供个人护理，独立于年龄。这进一步引起人们对政策和方案的关注，这些政策和方案可以支持老年人，特别是女性和城市居民，在晚年保持生产力。
