Social participation of elderly: The case of Bolu

Aging, starting in mother's womb and continuing until death, is the unavoidable process of alteration happening in human's nature. The individuals are exposed to some physiological, psychological and sociological changes with the old age which is the last stage of human life. On the other hand, lifetime has extended and the proportion of old people in the whole population has increased with the development in the field of science, medicine and technology in the 19th century. Therefore, there has been an unprecedented change in demographic structure all around the world. Nowadays, aging is a global issue. Our planet is gradually aging. The physiological, psychological and sociological changes in individuals' life with aging and the changes in life conditions can make old individuals' integration with society and participation in social life difficult. The aim of the study is to reveal whether the older people (aged 65 and older) in Bolu, participate in social life or not and to what level they participate in this process of changes. In addition to this, the attempt to reveal the influences of age, gender, level of income, health conditions, marital status, level of education on social participation of old people with the case of Bolu is the main aim of the study. In the content of the study, it can be with applying survey, the data was gathered via face -to- face interview with 138 old people (aged 65 and older) living at home (not nursing home or aged care home) in the center of Bolu and the study is supported byt he review of the literature. It can be concluded from the results of this study that in the proccess of participating in society, women than men; olders than youngers; lower level educated ones than higher level educated ones; lower incomed ones than higher incomed ones; bad health conditioned ones than healtiers; widowed ones than married ones are in more disadvantageous position.