ABSTRACT

Cultural beliefs have influenced gender roles towards the care of the elderly in variety of ways. Caring for the elderly is important in the society as they are invaluable individuals with wealth of information about culture of the society. This study examine how these cultural beliefs contribute to or challenge traditional gender roles in the provision of elderly care in ekosodin community, examine the relationship between the demise of the aged population and its effect on the sustainability and longevity of cultural values and beliefs in ekosodin community, identify the role of these traditional beliefs in influencing youth attitude, responsibilities and participation in elderly care in ekosodin community and determine how cultural beliefs undermine the administering if health care services in the care of the elderly. A quantitative research study was carried out in ekosodin, Edo State. From the population of 280 respondent, 20 years and above was selected for the study. A self-structured questionnaire was used to collect necessary information from the respondent. This was ascertained to be both valid and reliable, the data collected was analysed using simple percentage. The conclusion revolves around these findings, it was recommended among other things that Health care system should recognise the value of traditional healing practices and consider integrating them into mainstream healthcare where appropriate, health care providers and policy makers should implement strategies to address gender based disparities in healthcare access for the elderly, community education programmes should be implemented to raise awareness about the importance of cultural sensitivity in healthcare and to dispelmyths and misconceptions about traditional healing practices.