Health and physical support for the elderly in Nigeria

This paper examines the help which elderly Nigerians get in the form of services from family, relatives and non-relatives and the effect of their age, sex, location (urban/rural) and state of health on the provision of these services. Children are by far the most important source of services, followed by grandchildren. Few old people have neither children nor grandchildren available to help them. Lack of household help was more common for women than for men and women were more likely than men to carry on with domestic tasks into extreme old age. Weakness, arthritis and failing vision were the chief health problems leading to a need for more help. Since these are all correlated with age, it is hard to separate these two factors. Increasing levels of migration may deprive old people of their children's services and some move in order to get the care they need.