Understanding the mental health status of aged rural women: A sample study

Pages:458-462
Vinod Kumari (CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Campus Kaul, Kaithal, Haryana)

Increased urbanization and industrialization have disturbed the extended family setup of Indian society for simple economics reasons, thereby making state and the community think of elderly care. The growing incidence of elder abuse in the multigenerational family or household has forced many older persons to abandon their family home. Both the absolute and relative size of population of the elderly in India will gain the strength in future. Elderly people are highly prone to mental morbidities due to ageing of the brain, problems associated with physical health and socio-economic factors like break down of family support and decline in economic independence. The issue is more acute for women, not only because of their progressive predominance numerically with age, but also because women are disadvantaged in the predominantly patriarchal societies in which most of them live. Hence, the present study was undertaken to examine the mental health profiles of aged rural women. A semi-structured questionnaire on socio-demographic and mental health profiles of women was developed to assess their mental health status. Most of the aged women under study were living with their families and about half (53.7%) of them were married while rests were widows. More than 80% aged women reported that they could concentrate on work and could play a useful role in the family provided they were given due respect and health care. However, 21.3% of sampled women were not able of making sound decisions and 32.5% were not feeling happy. The main reason reported for unhappiness was lack of due consideration and respect given by family members in various domestic affairs and they felt ignored. It was interested to note that 92.5% of aged women still felt that they were able to enjoy normal life and 86.3% had the capability and confidence of overcoming their difficulties. As regards to negative mental health attributes of aged rural women, it was found that more than half of them (57.5%) remained under stress due to one or the other reason. Some of them lost confidence in self (23.7%), lost sleep (13.7%) and thought themselves as worthless person (6.3%). The results of the study indicated differences in mental health attributes of aged women across different age groups. More mental stress was observed in women of 50-60 years of age (72.2%) followed by 61-70 years (58.1%) and more than 70 years (15.4%). The overall mental health level of aged rural women declined with age and it was found that more than 75 per cent of women were having good mental health. The study showed the role of age played in mental health and functioning of an elderly woman. This is an important marker to the further deteriorating conditions in various other health profiles of these “assets of the society”. Thus, these vulnerable groups of our society need special concern and better attention in their welfare programmes and health care services.