Characterization of Older Adults Attending a Grandparents’ Home

Abstract

Introduction: The Royal Spanish Academy defines the term to age as to make a person or thing old, with the passing of the years or due to much use; while old age is defined as the last state of antiquity of things or people.

Objective: To characterize the older adults who attend Inocencio Peña Grandparents’ Home in Bartolomé Masó Márquez Municipality.

Methods: A descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study was carried out, during the first semester of 2019, with 22 older adults from Inocencio Peña Grandparents' Home in Bartolomé Masó Márquez Municipality, Granma Province. The study variables were age, sex, education level, place of residence, occupation, marital status, type of family, number of people who live together, income, individual disease history, evaluation of basic or implemented activities, and disability.

Result: The male sex predominated (15; 68.18%), together with the age group 70-74 years (7; 31.82%) and primary school level (12; 54.54%). 54.54% reside in rural areas, 63.63% were workers, and 77.27% are single. 86.37% are from nuclear families, 54.54% of the grandparents have average incomes, and 40.91% live in groups of 3-5 people. Hypertension is the main disease condition (27.28%), 95.46% are independent regarding basic activities in daily life, 94.56% are so in instrumented one, and 95.45% did not present any disabilities.

Conclusions: Older adults were mostly single men, they lived in urban areas, had primary school level, were hypertensive, came from a low-income nuclear family with 3-5 members and were independent for basic daily activities and instrumented ones.