Journal of Palliative Care & Medicine
Open Access

Abstract

Elderly as vulnerable road users have more deaths by road traffic injuries and road traffic injuries is the second leading cause of death among people 65 years and older. Determination of transport status among elderly could help to identify the existing vacancy that could improve elderâ��s safety and to be used in traffic injury reduction planning in the country. The current study aimed to determine the optimal transport characteristics of elderâ��s perspectives. Materials and Methods: Perspective of 200 elders 60 years and older about Friendly Transportation characteristics: (availability, acceptability, accessibility, compatibility, affordability) were studied in a descriptive cross-sectional study. All the elderly population attending the cultural centers and parksâ�� at North, South, West, East and Central areas of Tehran, were selected at randomly. Elders were divided into three age groups: young (70-60 years), middle aged (80-70 years), and old (80 years and older). Consent form was taken from samples to participate in the study. Data were collected using a designed questionnaire. Validity and reliability of the instrument were determined using content validity and test-retest reliability (Cronbach's alpha 89%). Results: The mean age of samples was 73.8 �± 8.5 years. More than 70% of the studied samples had less than 12 years of high schoolsâ�� education. Forty percent of samples had incomes below a million Tomans (equal to 10,000,000 IRR). And %75, 4 of elders did not have any satisfaction from the availability characteristic of public transport. Acceptability characteristic of friendly transportation was good in %45, 5 of eldersâ�� opinion. Also, 60 percent of studied elders reported poor accessibility to public transport. Compatibility characteristic of friendly transportation was good in %76, 4 of eldersâ�� opinion. Elder men opinions about affordability characteristic of friendly transportation were good and women opinions were reported weak. Conclusion: Results confirmed that elderly transportation was inappropriate. To attain friendly transportation, planning, need to address infrastructure alteration and traffic improvements for availability and accessibility characteristics among both men and women and affordability characteristic among women are felt more essential.

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