Mobility of the Aged in Durban : the Effects of Environmental Barriers, 1986

The City Health Department of the City of Durban requested the Institute for Sociological and Demographic Research (ISODEM) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to conduct a survey among the White elderly population of Durban to assess their level of mobility in terms of perceived ability to negotiate the environment, and to determine what particular problems and difficulties elderly people experience in getting around in Durban. The purpose of the investigation was to obtain information to enable the Durban City Council to render at local level whatever assistance that might be possible to alleviate problems relating to environmental barriers to the mobility of the “well- elderly” population. Several factors suggested that the proposed investigation was both relevant and desirable. Most Western countries are presently experiencing an aging of the population. In South Africa it was found that the percentage of persons 65 years and older in the White population was 7.8 in 1980.Projections indicated that by the year 2000 this percentage will increase to 8.6 and by the year 2050, to 15.6. A further phenomenon in most Western countries is the increasing number of “well-elderly” persons related to an increase in life expectancy largely as a result of developments in medical sciences. In the period 1980-1985 the life expectancy of South African White males was 66.8 years and White females 73.8 years. Projections indicated that these figures will increase to 69.6 years for males and 75.9 years for females by the year 2000. Implications of these phenomena were that resources would have to be redeployed to extend services for the increasing sector of the population, thus the conduction of this survey