Exploring the Expectation and Perception of Socio-Economic Needs of the Elderly in Ghana: An Empirical Analysis

Elderly care, or aged care, is the fulfilment of the special needs and requirements that are unique to senior citizens. Because of the wide variety of elderly care found globally, as well as differentiating cultural perspectives on elderly citizens, cannot to be limited to any one practice. Our study evaluates the socio-economic situation of older people in Ghana, as they move into their retirement year. It analyses a comprehensive range of variables that capture the economic status of the elderly, including income, poverty rates, food consumption, housing consumption, nutrition measures, household production, and leisure. Further the study focuses on providing a solid assessment of the economic status of elderly people using comprehensive measures. It also specifically addresses questions regarding the social program participation decisions of the elderly and how public transfers impact their welfare. Following proposal for further studies in existing literature, this study explore the expectations and perception of socio-economic care needs of the elderly in Ghana using Kano’s service quality model as a tool to determine the expectations gap in the current services available for the elderly in Ghana. The study concludes that social welfare has typically had a low priority and the contribution of the family to welfare has largely been neglected. As a consequence, policy-making on how better to harness the energies and resources of the family and the community to resolve the social needs of individuals and groups has barely commenced. Traditional domestic arrangements had intergenerational support built into them; modern arrangements are in the process of destroying this key social welfare feature. Recognizing that this is the case raises the question of how to design intergenerational support back into mainstream social relations so that the elderly are not marginalized and put at risk by the urbanization process.