Elderly and achieved fertility: assessing the impact of old age security expectation on elderly achieved fertility in Nigeria

Elias O. Wahab, Lagos State University
Uche Isiugo-Abanihe, University of Ibadan

Elderly support system has received increased attention in recent years and its impact on the elderly achieved fertility has further generated several public policy and academic concerns. This is addressed by examining the fact that due to the dearth of formal care for the elderly, the onus for the care of this class of people rest squarely on their children. could an expectation of and a need for support in old age be impetus to high fertility in West Africa?. This poses important academic questions on the welfare of the elderly. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through individual-based questionnaire, focus group discussions and individual depth interviews. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select local government areas, EAs and individuals for the study. In all, 810 respondents were interviewed. There were also 12 FGDs & 10 IDIs. Logistic regression model was used to determine the net effects of the explanatory factors on the welfare of the elderly. The study found that indeed some of the elderly persons gave birth to certain number of children in expectation of old age care, minimum of six children as noticed in the studied population. Indeed education and religion are related to the family size of the elderly persons. Those with primary level of education are 4.3 times more likely to see high number of children as important source of old age security than those secondary level of education. In terms of religion, while Muslims are 1.8 times more likely to, those who are adherents of African traditional religion are 3.5 times more likely to have resulted to high fertility as an important source of old age security. The study concludes that there is the urgent need for the promulgation of old people’s policy and a well-organized social security system catering all old persons.