Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.03.1983, Blaðsíða 244

This is true for the problem with fear of crime. In three of the specific prob-
lems that have been studied, lcw age predisposes for high risk to perceive the
problem. This is true for the problem with bad economy, lack of meanigful activi-
ty and unenployment. As already has been said, it is hcwever neither old age nor
low age, which are the most inportant factors predisposing for problems. The one
single variable which, relatively speaking, is most inportant as a predisposar for
problems, is sex. Being a womn predisposes to feelings of fear of crime, feelings
of loneliness, bad health, bad education, uselessness and of unsufficiency. In
short, this can be studied in table 5, which discribes eleven different regression
analyses, one for each problem, where as independant variables age, sex, civil
status, years of education, socio-economic status and political preference, have
been used. The coefficients in table 5 are the standardized regression coefficients
(beta coefficients). Note that the predictors used in the analyses together
explain very small prcportions of the variance in the problem perceptions.
Regarding the fact that it is only concerning the fear of crime that hig age as
such is a predisposing factor, it becomes interesting to find out hcw people in
common believe elderly to have problems.
As mentioned above, the problem most old pecple themselves report as a problem of
their own is fear of crime. Fear of crime is hcwever not the specific problem
pecple in common most frequently believe old pecple to have. As can be seen from
table 6 it is the problem of loneliness old pecple are believed to have. In the
total sanple almost 90 per cent of the respondents believe elderly to have
problems with loneliness. This is to be conpared with the fact that among the
the elderly themselves 25 per cent report this kind of problem. As also can be
seen from table 6 the degree to which elderly are believed to have problems with
loneliness increases with decreasing age. Among the youngest respondents 95 per
cent believe elderly in general to have problems with loneliness.
Another type of problem, where the difference between how elderly themselves
describe their situation, and hcw respondents in general believe elderly to be,
is the problem with feelings of uselessness. In this case 26 per cent of the
elderly themselves actually have this problem, while 83 per cent of all respon-
dents in the material believe elderly to have this problem. Also in this case
it is the youngest respondents who to the largest degree overestiirate this prob-
lem. Further, another kind of problem where the difference is great between the
prcportion of elderly who actually have a problem and the prcportion of people
in general who believe the elderly to have a problem, is the problem with lack
of friends. It is 10 per cent of the elderly in the sanple who according to
themselves have this problem, while 65 per cent of all the respondents believe
that elderly in general to have this problem. Also in this case it is the
youngest respondents who to the largest degree overestinates this problem for
the elderly.
Another exanple of the same phenomenon can be seen in the analysis of the prob-
lem with lack of meaningful activity. In this case 7 per cent of the elderly
have the problem while 60 per cent of all respondents believe elderly to have
the problem. As usual, the youngest respondents are the ones who overestimate most.
In summary, table 6 clearly shcws a pattern of over-estimating the problems
elderly are believed to have, in conparison to what elderly themselves report. A
part of this pattern is also that the young respondents are those who to the
largest degree over-estimate the elderly's problems. There is one only exception
from this rule of over-estimating the problems of the elderly. Only 13 per cent of
the respondents in the total sanple believe elderly to have problems with bad
education, while 26 per cent of the elderly themselves report such problems.
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