INVESTIGATING SOCIAL SUPPORT DISPARITIES AND LOCALITY OF OCTOGENARIANS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the distribution of octogenarians' demographic factors based on locality in Nigeria and established the influence of locality on social support among octogenarians in Nigeria. The population comprised all octogenarians between the ages of 80 and 89 years in Nigeria. The study participants were 1,774 octogenarians residing in rural, peri-urban and urban areas selected from Osun, Oyo, Imo, and Benue states in Nigeria using a snowballing sampling technique. A quantitative data collection approach was employed with a computer-assisted personal interview (CaPI), which was used to administer a structured questionnaire to gather primary data. An instrument titled “Social Support of Octogenarians Questionnaire (SSOQ)” was used to collect data for the study. The study found that more than half (52.31%) of the octogenarian population resides in rural areas. The study further reveals that siblings and Non-Governmental Organisations (RC = 0.2236, p=0.022) provide less support in urban areas compared to rural ones (RC=0.2511, p=0.010), while urban octogenarians benefit more from retirees and Faith-Based Organisations (RC=0.2874, p=0.000). The study concluded that the provision of social support for octogenarians was not evenly distributed across the localities in Nigeria. Appropriate recommendations for policy implementation were made accordingly.

Keywords: Demographic factors, Octogenarians, Social support, Rural-urban comparison