Mobility is very important for most elderly people because they need regular visits to a health facility for proper medical treatment. However, they are facing problems such as limited mobility option to the health facility. The objectives of this pilot study are to determine the mobility characteristics of rural elderly people on health facilities and to identity the most preferred mode of transport among them. The study employed a quantitative method based on a case study approach. By using online questionnaire survey forms, data were collected from 40 rural elderlies of Kampung Kota Aur which is located at Penaga, Seberang Perai Utara District, Penang, Malaysia. This village was selected due to mobility problems such as difficulty for rural elderly people to reach the health facility and lack of mode of transport. The data were analysed using the frequency and cross-tabulation tests as provided in the IBM SPSS Statistics software. The major findings of this pilot study are the mobility characteristics of rural elderly people were dominated by high dependency on private vehicle, moderate risk of driving and less visit to health facility. Furthermore, paratransit was the most preferred mode of transport among them. The findings from this pilot study carry good and early inputs to relevant agencies in considering better mobility service for rural elderly people in the future. Further research should be done to investigate the mobility characteristics of rural elderly people to health facility. The sample size of respondents could be improved according to population of elderlies at the real study area.
Ahern, A., & Hine, J. (2012). Rural transport - valuing the mobility of older people. Research in Transportation Economics, 34(1), 27-34.
Broderick, A. (2018). The future of rural transportation and mobility for older adults: Current trends and future directions in technology-enabled solutions. Berkeley, United States of America: CITRIS and the Banatao Institute.
Department of Statistics, Malaysia. (2017). Population quick info. Retrieved August 15, 2021 from http://www. dosm.gov.my.
Fernandez-Mayoralas, G., Rodriguez, V., & Rojo, F. (2000). Health services accessibility among Spanish elderly. Social Science and Medicine, 50(1), 17-26.
Giuliano, G. (2004). Land use and travel patterns among the elderly. In. Transportation in an aging society: A decade of experience. Technical Papers and Reports from a Conference, November 7-9, 1999, (192-210).
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conf/reports/cp27. pdf
Glasgow, N., & Blakely, R. M. (2000). Older nonmetropolitan residents’ evaluations of their transportation arrangements. The Journal of Applied Gerontology, 19(1), 95-116.
Goodman, D. (2017, Autumn). Getting around town. Public Roads, 81(3). https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/autumn-2017/getting-around-town
Hertzog, M. A. (2008). Considerations in determining sample size for pilot studies. Research in Nursing and Health. 31(2), 180-191.
Ibrahim, M. Y. (n.d.). Sembang metodologi 19: Bilangan sampel kajian rintis. Akademia pro hub. [Facebook page]. Retrieved August 14, 2021 from https://www.facebook.com/ academiaprohub/posts/sembang-metodologi-19-bilangan-sampel-kajian-rintisoleh-dr-mohd-yusri-ibrahimkaj/8067332…
Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat. (2017). Dasar warga emas negara. Retrieved August 15, 2021 from http://www.jkm.gov.my.
Kamar, M. A. A. (2019). A preliminary study of the need of medical care facilities for older people among local authority areas. ESTEEM Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 3 (November 2019), 88-98.
Khalid, H. A., Leh, O. L. H., Jalil, N. I. R., Marzukhi, M. A., & Nasrudin, N. (2020). An analysis of the needs of elderly-friendly neighbourhood in Malaysia: Perspectives of older and younger groups. Planning Malaysia Journal of the Malaysian Institute of Planners, 18(4), 144-157.
Litman, T. (2017). Public transit’s impact on rural and small towns: A vital mobility link. Washington, D. C., United States of America: Transportation Research Board.
Papalia, D. E., Sterns, H. L., Feldman, R. D., & Camp, C. J. (2002). Adult development and aging - second edition. Boston, United States of America: McGraw-Hill.
Plazinic, R. B., & Jovis, J. (2018). Mobility and transport potential of elderly in differently accessible rural areas. Journal of Transport Geography, 68 (March), 169-180.
Sanmargaraja, S., & Seow, T. W. (2009). Pandangan warga tua di rumah warga tua: Kajian kes di bandaraya Ipoh dan Johor Bahru. Prosiding Persidangan Kebangsaan Geografi dan Alam Sekitar Kali Keempat, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 143-151.
Titheridge, H., Achuthan, K., Mackett, R., & Solomon, J. (2003). Assessing the extent of transport social exclusion among the elderly. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2(2), 31-48.
United Nations. (2017). World population prospects the 2017 revision - key findings and advance tables. New York, United States of America: United Nations.
United Nations. (2019). Ageing. Retrieved August 15, 2021 from http://www.un.org/en/ sections/issues-depth/ageing/
Wang, K., Wong, E. L., Ho, K., Cheung, A. W., Yau, P. S., Dong, D., Wong, S. Y., & Yeoh, E. (2021). Change of willingness to accept COVID-19 vaccine and reasons of vaccine hesitancy of working people at different waves of local epidemic in Hong Kong, China: Repeated cross-sectional surveys, Vaccines, 9(62), 1-15.
Webber, S. C., Porter, M. M., & Menec, V. H. (2010). Mobility in older adults: A comprehensive framework. The Gerontologist, 50(4), 443-450.
World Assembly on Ageing. (1982). Report on the world assembly on ageing - Vienna 1982. Australian Journal on Ageing, 1(4), 13-14.
In-Text Citation: (Khalid & Kamar, 2022)
To Cite this Article: Khalid, S., & Kamar, M. A. A. (2022). A Pilot Study of Mobility Characteristics of Rural Elderly People to Health Facility. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(11), 2311– 2320.
Copyright: © 2022The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode