Needs of the elderly in Finland: Descriptive results of a national population survey

Abstract

The growing demand for health and social services among the retired population is one of the great challenges in the developed countries in the 1980s according to recent population estimates. As a part of a larger population survey the paper attempts to assess the present needs of the elderly in Finland. The basic health status, the ability to move, the need for assistance from another person in basic daily activities and the prevalence of selected complaints are described among 1766 persons of at least 65 years of age. They formed a nation-wide representative sample of the retired non-institutionalized population. The data, which are a part of the Finnish national health and social security survey in 1976, were collected by public health nurses in household interviews.

About 80% of the retired population had at least one defect or injury that lowered their general working capacity or activity or at least one chronic illness. This percentage did not vary greatly among the retired population by age.

One third of the retired population had restrictions on the ability to move in the age group of 65–69 years and this percentage grew by age so that the same proportion was about 50% in the age group of 75 years and over. Women suffered more often than men from restrictions on the ability to move.

The need for assistance from another person in basic daily activities grew clearly by age among the retired population. House cleaning and shopping were activities for which the need for assistance from another person was the most frequent. The need for assistance was rather rare for dressing, visits to the WC and eating among the non-institutionalised retired population, which suggested that problems in these activities were one of the main factors causing institutionalization.

Fatigue and sleeplessness were the most prevalent perceived complaints among the retired population. Women experienced all complaints more often than men.

The results supported the views that the health problems of the very old are different from those of the younger retired population, because the functional health status, i.e. the social consequences of health problems, seems to initiate a greater need for care among the more elderly age groups.