RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POVERTY LEVELS AND AGE CATEGORIES AMONG MALE AND FEMALE CONSUMERS IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

This paper mainly aims to show the poverty incidents among elderly Malaysians by sex disaggregation. In detail, this paper aims (RO-1) to profile the economic background of the respondents by age categories and sex disaggregation; (RO-2) to differentiate the mean of household income by poverty level, age categories, and sex of the respondents; and (RO-3) to measure the relationship between the level of poverty and age categories by sex disaggregation. A total of n=4428 respondents participated in this study, drawn from 100 districts with 20,000 population of the elderly. Descriptive analyses, t-tests, and chi-square tests were conducted to achieve the objectives. Under RO-2, four null hypotheses were tested (there was no difference of mean household income among – poor and younger (Ho₁), non-poor and younger (Ho₂), poor and older (Ho₃), and non-poor and older (Ho₄); respondents by sex disaggregation respectively). Only Ho₃ shows a significant (p<0.05) difference in mean household income among poor and older male and female respondents. Therefore, only Ho₃ was rejected whilst Ho₁, Ho₂, Ho₄ was failed to be rejected. Under RO-3, three null hypotheses were tested (there was no relationship between poverty levels and age categories among male respondents (Ho₅) and among female respondents (Ho₇), respectively). The Ho₅ and Ho₆ revealed significant (p<0.05) relationships between level of poverty and age categories among male and female respondents through Chi-square. Thus, Ho₅ and Ho₆ were rejected. This study concludes that older men and women are poorer than younger ones. Therefore, poverty is not only a gender issue but also an age-related issue.