gender

There are numerous sociological and psychosocial studies, both classic and current, that have analysed the images and representations of older people and aging. If gender, intersectional and land perspectives are added, the literature consulted is only a few years old, particularly in Spanish. In addition, research based on fieldwork from virtual image banks is still scarce and recent. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the images from some free access image banks (like Freepik, Canva, Pixabay, or Storyblocks) of older people from a gender, intersectional and socio-spatial and land perspective. Methods: 150 images have been analysed following different selected criteria: 22 variables related to gender, activity, socio-spatial environment, natural space and land, among others, briefly describe the main methods or treatments applied. The key results show a stereotyped and barely diverse image of old age and aging around positive representations, with a notable absence of images related to loneliness as opposed to the presence of social relationships. A feminization has also been observed in the representations, with an imbalance in the activities that are carried out (care in the case of women and leisure in the case of men) and in the visible space (indoor among women and outdoor among men). Older people are still identified with a rural, traditional, and more defined territory and not with more diverse and ecological spaces, which are more frequently attributed to younger profiles. This evaluation contributes to linking this necessary connection of current issues and challenges to ageism, sexism and other exclusions derived from territory and socio-spatial aspects. However, more research is still needed, and, in fact, a second phase of the fieldwork is underway to broaden the sample and to expand further evaluations of images.

This paper investigates positive perceptions of ageing in rural people aged 65 and over as a key predictor of the self-assessment of one’s health. Method: The sample covers a total of 3389 people from the ‘Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement’ (SHARE), wave 6 (W6, 2015). This research analyses men and women who live in a rural environment. A linear regression model is proposed to consider the dependent variable ‘self-rated health’ and independent variables based on measures of quality of life in older adults. This study confirms that rural women perceive their health on the basis of factors different to those of their male contemporaries. The variable ‘How often do you feel/think that you can do the things that you want to do?’ is associated with women’s self-perceived health. In men, a high relationship (with p < 0.001) is obtained for the variables ‘How often do you feel/think look back on your life with a sense of happiness?’ and ‘How often do you feel/think that family responsibilities prevent you from doing what you want to do?’ Certain daily activities (e.g., leisure or care), along with a positive perception of life, influence one’s perceptions of one’s own health, especially in the case of women. In sum, rural older women make a positive evaluation of their own health and ageing, while rural older men relate self-rated health to passivity and reminiscing. There is a need for further research on psycho-social and socio-spatial issues from an intergenerational, technological and gender perspective for rural and territorial influences to attain better health and quality of life for rural older people in comparison to urban people.

There is a need to redefine and improve the treatment and care given in residences for the elderly from a non-pharmacological perspective that fosters person-centred care. In particular, the psychological and behavioural symptoms associated with dementia require a multidisciplinary evaluation to design appropriate interventions. The objective is to evaluate behavioural disorders in a group of residing elderly people and analyse whether the gender of the participants influences the presence of these behaviours. In the methodology, the group is consisted of 450 people, 73.6% women and 26.4% men with an average age of 86.82 (WD=8.22). The results show that women have a greater risk of presenting behavioural disorders. Men tend to present higher levels of anxiety, lack of inhibition, sleeping disorders, and loss of appetite; while women present more affective symptoms such as anxiety, euphoria, or apathy, or more psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations, and more aberrant motor behaviours. This influence is only significant for delusions and aberrant motor behaviour. The discussion and conclusions of the study show that gender influences behavioural disorders. This type of research work is very scarce because may be of great interest to develop and improve preventive strategies and non-pharmacological use of these symptoms in residence for the elderly settings.