Assessment of Gender Differentials in 'Being Component' of Quality of Life of Aged Living under Varying Support Systems

Abstract

Quality of Life (QOL) is the amount of satisfaction a person derives from his daily life. It is the degree of excellence of one's life that contributes to satisfaction and health. Quality of life of an individual is affected by a number of positive and negative life events which may be related either to his family, society, community or his own personal life. The Quality of Life approach recognizes that there are three different components of living that contribute to Quality of Life of an individual (Raphael et al., 1998). These are Being, Belonging and Becoming. Each of these components has three dimensions that are an integral part of the lives of all individuals. All these need to be considered to assess an individual's Quality of Life (QOL). Against this backdrop the study envisaged the following objectives:Objectives of the study* To examine gender differentials in the 'Being' component of Quality of Life of the aged across varying support systems.* To assess gender differentials in the Quality of Life of aged across different dimensions of the 'Being' component and varying support systems.MethodParticipantsThe study was focused on investigating the gender differentials in the 'Being' component of Quality of Life (QOL) and its dimensions. For this the Quality of Life Profile (Seniors version) developed by the Quality of Life Research Unit, Centre for Health Promotion, University ofToronto, Canada (2000) was employed. This Quality of Life approach recognizes that there are three different components of living that contribute to the Quality of Life of an individual. These are Being, Belonging and Becoming. Each of these components further has three dimensions. Thus, there are nine specific dimensions / areas that are an integral part of the lives of all individuals and significantly contribute towards the Quality of Life of an individual. Therefore, it is imperative to reflect on all the nine dimensions to assess the QOL of an individual. 'Being component' is comprised of Physical, Psychological and Spiritual dimension, 'Belonging component' has Physical, Social and Community dimension and the 'Becoming component' has Practical, Leisure and Growth dimension.Keeping in view the focus of the study, the sample for the study comprised 400 subjects, equally drawn from four support systems, viz. those Living with sons (100), those Living with daughters (100) those Living alone (100) and those Living in institution (100). The sample drawn from each support system was equally distributed over the two sexes viz. male and female. Also, the sample from varying support systems included only such aged subjects who satisfied the inclusion criteria of being 65 years and above in age, living under a given support system for at least one year and supporting families also resided in Ludhiana city.ResultsThe 'Being' scores essentially relate to the Physical, Psychological and Spiritual aspects of an individual's life. It is the sum total of the positive outcomes of physical health, nutrition, hygiene, mental health, positive attitude to life and personal values, which contribute to high Being score.Therefore, Table 1 presents a comparative picture with respect to the 'Being' component of the Quality of Life of the aged across different support systems.For the aged 'Living with sons' significant differences were observed only in the 'Very Good' category of'Being' component of Quality of Life. In this category more number of males (12%) were found to enjoy 'Very Good' Quality of Life. Similar trend was noticed for the aged 'Living with daughters' where the males (14%) scored higher than the females in the 'Very Good' category of'Being' component, but statistically the differences were not significant. For the other categories of QOL, the scores of males and females in both the support systems were comparable and the differences were statistically non-significant. …