Quality of Life and Multiculturalism of Elderly People in the City of Ceuta (Spain)

Abstract

The study in the quality of life of old people is seen as having a special interest in order to detect specific needs which otherwise would go unnoticed. This is even more important in multicultural societies, where religious and cultural perspectives are understood as decisive. The main objective of this study was to identify factors which affect the quality of life of the elderly belonging to different religions (Christian, Muslim and Jewish), living together in Ceuta (Spain), on the border of Morocco. Between 2006 and 2009, an ethnographic study was made in the city of Ceuta amongst people aging from 65 to 80 years (n: 372; N: 7078), different religious beliefs (7% Jewish; 68% Christians; 25% Muslims; 7% Jewish), both genders (55% female; 45% male), with no invalidating/disability pathologies and who had lived in Ceuta for at least 20 years within any of the six different districts in which the city is divided. The indicated population underwent a survey, from which three different dimensions emerge. These dimensions are submitted to reliability and validity criteria: Isolation (α=0,73), Multiculturality (=0,65), and Border Security (α=69). These results lead us to the elaboration of a model of the reality of the elderly in a multicultural context.