Acceso usuarios
La estructura de la población en los países en desarrollo está cambiando y la proporción de las personas ancianas está aumentando rápidamente; Venezuela no escapa de este fenómeno, lo cual conduce al crecimiento de una población anciana con necesidades, problemas y con unas débiles políticas de seguridad/asistencia social que no coadyuvan a mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas de la tercera edad. Ante esta situación, se planteó analizar la problemática social de la vejez en Venezuela reportada, por la investigación gerontológica desarrollada por la universidad venezolana. Para ello, se realizó una investigación descriptiva con un diseño no experimental, empleando dos cuestionarios aplicados a funcionarios que planifican y/o ejecutan las políticas y programas oficiales, lo cual permitió establecer la correspondencia y pertinencia entre las políticas y programas sociales para las terceras edades implementadas por los organismos gubernamentales del país y las necesidades reales del adulto mayor. Los resultados indicaron que existe una baja correspondencia entre las políticas y programas con las necesidades y problemas reportados por la investigación gerontológica; los programas, actividades y acciones desarrollados por los organismos gubernamentales para la atención integral del adulto mayor, se polarizan a satisfacer las necesidades fisiológicas (salud y alimentación), minimizando la satisfacción de otras necesidades básicas de igual importancia para el bienestar social del anciano (afectivas, recreativas, educativas, de trabajo y seguridad económica). Se recomienda a las instituciones, apoyarse en la investigación gerontológica que realiza la universidad venezolana, para reorientar sus políticas, programas y objetivos de atención a la población anciana.
The population structure in developing countries is changing, and the proportion of elderly people is rapidly increasing. Venezuela is not an exception to this phenomenon in which the elderly population increases along with its needs, problems and weak social security and assistance policies that do not improve life quality for this population.. For this reason, social problems for elderly Venezuelans were analysed and reported on in geriatric-ontological research in Venezuelan universities. In order to do this descriptive research with a non-experimental design including two questionnaires was applied to officials who make or carry out policies and official programs. They were submitted to a validation process by experts and their confidence levels were determined through the Kuder-Richarson coefficient (KR-20) and resulted in 0,89. This permitted an analysis of correspondence and pertinence between policies and social programs for the elderly, and the real needs of this population. Based on these results there appears to be a low correspondence between policies and programs in relation to needs and problems reported by researchers. Documentary research was carried out through observation guides and context analysis applied to bibliographic resources (gerontology area research); and permitted the establishment of correspondence and relevance between social programs and politics for the third age implemented by governmental organisms of this country and the real necessities of elderly adults. The activities and actions developed by governmental organisms for attention to the elderly were focused on satisfying the physiological necessities (health and nutrition) minimizing the satisfaction of other basic necessities with the same importance for the social comfort of old person (affection, recreation, education, work and economic security). It is recommended that institutions support their actions based on geriatric-ontological research that Venezuelan universities are doing in order to organize their policies, programs and objectives in attention for the elderly population.
