CADENZA: A Jockey Club Initiative for Seniors

Social Inclusion and Empowerment

Social Inclusion and Empowerment

Misconception and Knowledge Gap about Elderly Issues

Patsy Chau (Faculty of Social Sciences, HKU)

Benise Mak (Faculty of Social Sciences, HKU)

Jean Woo (Faculty of Medicine, CUHK)

Introduction

• What is your concept of “elderly people”?– ………

• Beliefs, attitudes, behaviour– Affect how you interact with elderly

people.

• Misconceptions may lead to social exclusion.

Misconception Survey

• Objectives:– Whether people in general have

misconceptions about elderly people?– Whether there are group differences in

misconceptions?• Younger vs. older people• Healthcare professionals vs. general public

– Whether people have adequate health knowledge to take care of our elders?

Misconception Survey (cont’d)

• Design:– Survey– Covering all ages as well as healthcare

professionals and students of these professions

• Method:– Questionnaire (face-to-face interview &

self-administer)

• Participants:– N=2,694

Survey Findings: Image of the Elderly

% “Agree”

Questions Elderly

Age 65+

Soon-to-be old

Age 50-64

Adult

Age 18-49

Healthcare Profess-

ionals

Students of Health

Professions

n=580 n=348 n=1564 n=275 n=322

5251547171• Most elderly people are unhappy.

4350485968• Most elderly people drop out of the society.

1813172234• Most elderly people think positively like when they were young.

6057555033• Except labour work, most elderly people can work like a young person.

1516144476• Elderly people should give way to younger workers.

Survey Findings: Health Literacy

% “Agree”

Questions Elderly

Age 65+

Soon-to-be old

Age 50-64

Adult

Age 18-49

Healthcare Profess-

ionals

Students of Health

Professions

n=580 n=348 n=1564 n=275 n=322

2017212137• Most elderly people are healthy.

6678708995• Most elderly people’s teeth would fall out.

2343162524• If my family member becomes demented, I know how to take care of him/her.

411133260• Regarding health, only the doctor will be able to tell elderly people what to do.

Summary of the Findings

• People generally have misconceptions about elderly people .

• There are differences in misconceptions among different groups of people.– Older people have more misconceptions about

themselves than younger people. – Healthcare professionals are not better than the

general public.

• Health literacy among general public is rather poor.– Healthcare professionals do have more health

knowledge than general public.

Implications

• To promote social inclusion, public education or training targeting the following areas is needed:– Reduce misconceptions

• General public• Healthcare professionals• Elderly (Empowerment)

– Improve health literacy• Carers• Elderly (Empowerment)