Analysis of mobility patterns of the elderly in rural areas of Ondo State, Nigeria.
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Date
2016
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Geography, Obafemi Awolowo University
Abstract
The study examined the socio-economic characteristics and mobility characteristics of the elderly in the rural areas of Ondo State. It also identified mobility constraints of the elderly and examined the effects of transportation services on quality of life of the elderly population in the study area. These were with the view to determining the principal factors influencing the mobility of the elderly in the area.
Primary data were used for the study. The primary data were socio-economic characteristics, cost of transport, travel time and trip survey as well as the mobility characteristics of the elderly in the study area. The data were collected through a set of questionnaire, which were administered to the systematically selected elderly people (age 60 years and above) in the area. The sampling was achieved using a multi - stage sampling procedure. First, three Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly (balloting method) selected from each of the three existing senatorial district in Ondo State. This translated into nine LGAs. Second, the settlements within each of the selected LGA were stratified into three classes using population figure (i.e. settlements with population less than 2000, 2,100 - 5,000 people and above 5,000). This resulted to a total of 27 settlements (i.e. 3 settlements in each of the three existing senatorial districts). Finally, 10 % of the elderly (both male and female of age 60 years and above) population were selected for the study. Data on the socio-economic and mobility characteristics were analyzed using simple percentage distribution and t-test statistics while the mobility constraints were ranked using the principal component analysis (PCA).
The results showed that the elderly in the area were characterized by about 53.3% males and 46.7% of females who mostly (77.5%) were within the age group of 60 – 80 years and above. They were mostly farmers (45.3 %) and traders (31.8%), about 51.2% of who earned below ten thousand naira (N10, 000) monthly. The examination of the mobility constraints of the elderly indicated that most important destinations are the religious centres (27.9%), relatives and friends (21.4%), farms (20.5%) and market (13.8%) and that the most important means of mobility was trekking (82.7%). The most important (first five by rank) mobility constraints as ranked by the results of the PCA were poor road condition, health or physical condition of the elderly, high cost of transport, poor safety consideration and poor quality of services. Furthermore, the measures of quality of life of the elderly in the area were significantly (t ≤ - 3.02, p < 0.05) related to conditions of transportation services, poor road, and physical capability of the elderly, travel mode and cost of transport.
The study concluded that the principal factors that influenced the mobility of the elderly in the area were the health or physical capability of the elderly, poor road condition and relatively high transportation cost.
Description
xviii,232p
Keywords
Transportation, Socio-economic, Mobility, Rural areas, Mobility patterns, Elder
Citation
Ale, A.S. (2016). Analysis of mobility patterns of the elderly in rural areas of Ondo State,Nigeria. Obafemi Awolowo University