engleski

Dignified aging: differences and similarities between attitudes of citizens of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

In the introductory part of the paper the theoretical framework of dignified aging is presented. After that, the paper presents results of the research on attitudes of citizens aboout dignified aging which was conducted in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 2010 and August 2011 through models of care for the elderly and their dignified aging. The quota sample was 600 examinees. 300 from each country, matched by age, education and gender, were included. The aim of the paper is to examine citizens´attitudes considering care for the elderlya and perception of old age as a burden for the environment and to examine statistically significant differences between citizens´ attitudes about the elderly considering socio-demographic characteristics of examinees and two conutries: Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The questionnaire used is The Scale of Attitudes towards the Elerly (Štambuk, Leutar and Žitnik, 2011). Four factors, on the scale of citizens´ attitudes towards the elderly, were singled out by factor analysis: elderly as the burden for the environment, society´s care for the elderly, family care for the elderly and dignified aging. The obtained results show that attitudes about the elderly as a burden for the environment are negative, that it is expected, mostly from the society, but also from the family, to care for the elderly and that residence is one´s own home(with the help of a paid person or a member of the family) is the best choice of care, but with the possibility of choosing a retirement home and foster family. Socio-demographic characteristics(age, gender, education, employment status and place of living) proved to be important for attitudes about elderly care but also for the perception of old age as a burden for the enviroment. Statistically significant differences concerning examinees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were also found. In Bosnia and Herzegovina forms of care of the elderly are more related to families, while in Croatia there are higher expectations from the community. Results can be used in planning better care for the elderly, with the already existing forms, with the aim to improve the quality of life of the elderly and satisfaction of their potential guardians.

the elderly; attitudes; care; Croatia; Bosnia and Herzegovina

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