CADENZA: A Jockey Club Initiative for Seniors 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” QuestionsElderly Age 65+ Soon-to-be old Age Adult Age Healthcare Profess- ionals Students of Health Professions n=580n=348n=1564n=275n= Most elderly people are unhappy Most elderly people drop out of the society Most elderly people think positively like when they were young Except labour work, most elderly people can work like a young person Elderly people should give way to younger workers.

Survey Findings: Health Literacy % “Agree” QuestionsElderly Age 65+ Soon-to-be old Age Adult Age Healthcare Profess- ionals Students of Health Professions n=580n=348n=1564n=275n= Most elderly people are healthy Most elderly people’s teeth would fall out If my family member becomes demented, I know how to take care of him/her 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)