Effect of Knowledge of Aging on the Level of Aging Anxiety and Attitudes towards the Elderly: A Study among Early and Middle-Aged Adults in Nairobi, Kenya

The world is facing an aging society and Kenya is not an exception to experience the growing number of aging population. It is necessary to be aware of how the society treats the elderly while regarding the youths as the most productive population. The society might not have provided adequate information on aging thus younger people have an insufficient understanding on the aging process and the elderly. Accordingly, they may wonder in uncertainty about themselves getting older. As a consequence, they may feel fearful or worried about aging. This study aimed to investigate the level of knowledge on aging in early and middle-aged adults living in Nairobi, Kenya, the effect of the knowledge of aging on the level of aging anxiety and on the attitudes towards the elderly among younger adults. Further, a relationship between the level of aging anxiety and attitudes towards the elderly was examined. To the best knowledge of the author, there are few researches related to aging done in Kenya, thus this study contributed to the improvement of understanding of aging and how the younger people are affected by the knowledge of aging. The participants were people aged 20 to 59 years (N=I98) living in Nairobi. A demographic questionnaire developed by the researcher, Facts on Aging Quiz (FAQ) to measure the knowledge of aging, the Kogan's Attitudes toward Old People Scale (KAOP) to evaluate the attitudes towards the elderly and Anxiety about Aging Scale (AAS) to evaluate the level of aging anxiety were utilized to collect data. Collected data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Pearson Correlation coefficient to evaluate the relationship of variables. The analysis revealed that a majority of participants in this study had a lack of knowledge about aging. 60.1% had a neutral attitude toward the elderly and 86.4% reported lower anxiety about ageing. The result also showed that knowledge of aging is positively correlated with attitudes towards older people and people with better knowledge of aging are less likely to feel anxious towards aging than those who have less understanding of aging processes. No relationship between attitudes towards elderly and anxiety level towards getting older was found. The participant who are from different counties other than Kenya, those with higher level of education and/or those who are in the middle-aged showed more knowledge of aging processes. And. middle-aged adults showed more positive attitudes towards the elderly than younger adult.