Council of Young
Filipinx Americans in medicine

Abstract:

 

Following the 2013 impact of Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, fears arose over resilience in geriatric populations.  We aimed to identify and understand the effects of the geriatric-focused non-governmental organization Ibasho on geriatric social capital after its establishment at its Ormoc City site.  In this retrospective quality improvement study of secondary cross-sectional data collected by trained enumerators from 2019, 272 barangay (neighborhood) residents were surveyed to measure progress in developing social capital.  Participants were asked questions on demographics, select social capital outcomes, and livelihood.  Participants were defined as anyone who participated in an Ibasho activity since Ibasho began full operations.  We used Fisher’s tests to determine significant differences in the population, which was divided by participation frequency.  The groups were broadly similar in demographics, except in age and presence of family members in household.  155 barangay residents reported some level of participation in Ibasho since 2015.  Participation in Ibasho was associated with increased participation in a separate barangay senior citizens organization, and a greater number of people talked to regularly.  Social capital formation was also seen: participants talked to more barangay residents on a regular basis, but was otherwise no more robust versus non-participants.  In addition, leadership was centered on being engaged community participants, rather than participating in formal leadership positions in the barangay.  Finally, there are no significant differences in perceived self-empowerment and corresponding contribution (including self-rated livelihood outcomes) back to the community.  These results introduce the role social capital can have in developing resilience in Pilipinx geriatric populations. 

 

Keywords: social capital, geriatric population