The consumption behaviors of aged persons who live in eventide homes and with their families and the opinion about consumer education

This research has been planned and conducted for purposes of determining how the consumption behaviors and the opinion about consumer education of elderly people living in rest homes and with families, within the province of Istanbul. For this purpose, randomly chosen 65 year and older 150 elderly people in the province of Istanbul, 74 of which live with their families and 76 reside in 5 different rest homes for the elderly, were included in the research.The completed research has revealed that the level of education amongst the elderly living in rest homes is comparatively higher. More than half of the elderly persons (63,3%) are at the conclusion that they are not sufficiently informed about consumer rights and responsibilities. The elderly do not sufficiently utilise literature and the internet for purposes of consumer education. 64,7% of the elderly would be willing to participate in consumer education programmes designed specially for older people. More than half of them (%56,7) think that this would increase their ability in being more informed during shopping. The elderly who do not wish to participate in such programmes believe that consumer education activities would not bring any benefit to themselves (%71,7). More than half of the elderly (%63,9) think that TV programmes would be a more suitable format to receive consumer education for them. Majority of the elderly would like products and services to be provided in a format specially designed for them. It can be concluded that the majority of elderly both in rest homes and with families are most (82,0) attracted by products from the food-beverage group when shopping. Another conclusion is that health (%6,6), textiles/clothes (%0,7), electrical-electronic(%0,7) and transportation (%0,7) are not as important product groups for elderly living in rest homes. This is because the majority of elderly prefer the food-beverage group since it targets their needs more directly (%94,0). Compared to those living in rest homes, the elderly living with their families are more inclined to buy reproductions/fake products (p<0,05) and prefer to shop from door-to-door retailers (p<0,05).Key Words: Elderly, consumer, elderly consumer, consumer behavior, consumer education.