Use of another Driver or other form of Transport by People of an Advanced Age

Abstract

Background: A comparable number of advanced aged New Zealand Maori and non-Maori are presently driven by someone else or use other forms of transport.

Method: Everyday Interests and Activities – Transport subsection of the LiLAC study provided the question area for analysis. Enquiry focused on whether older people did use private car transport driven by someone else, were questioned who was their most regular driver, how often did someone else drive them in a typical week and what distance they drove in a typical journey, whether they had used other forms of transportation, if they had problems obtaining their groceries and did they provide transport in the form of car/assistance for others Methods of analysis included binomial logistic regression, chi-square test for association, ordinal logistic regression, Mann-Whitney U test and descriptive analysis.

Results: Participants totaled 931 with 421 New Zealand Maori and 510 New Zealand Maori non-Maori.

New Zealand Maori: A higher ratio of New Zealand Maori males were transported making use of their daughter. Most of such trips were made only once a week with more males travelling between 1.5-20.5 kilometres, while both males and females covered longer distances of 25.5-80+ kilometres. New Zealand Maori were not seen to have not made use of other forms of transport in the last twelve months and very rarely had any problem obtaining their groceries. New Zealand Maori females aided other members of the family, while New Zealand Maori males provided such a service to people outside of their family.

New Zealand non-Maori: Similarly, New Zealand non-Maori males were also seen to have made greater use of private transport provided by their daughter. In comparison there was almost a 50:50 split between those New Zealand non-Maori females who did and those who did-not make use of such a service. Of those who did such a service was primarily provided by their spouse followed by their daughter. Like New Zealand Maori, non-Maori New Zealanders generally only made use of such transport once a week or not at all. Trips taken by either male and female New Zealand non-Maori was firstly between 1.5-8, and then between 8.2-20.5 kilometres. More New Zealand non-Maori males had use of other forms of transport; while again there was practically a 50:50 split between those females who did and those who did not. Like New Zealand Maori, New Zealand non-Maori male and female very rarely had any problem obtaining their groceries. Both New Zealand non-Maori males and females were seen to provide care/assistance for that outside of the family.

Conclusion: Although as is often expected the majority both New Zealand Maori and New Zealand non-Maori representatives were seen to utilise family (daughters and spouse) for transportation. However, use of such a provision was generally restricted to only once a week and in assessing distance, consideration also needs to be made of respondent geographical location, especially in line with placement of main services. However, despite the use of such a transportation facility independent mobility remained with both rural and urban population groups. Future older generations will have experienced a closer relationship with motor vehicle use. Consequently, any transportation policy needs to be designed in line with sustaining the provision of goods, services, employment, social opportunities and membership of the community.