Introduction: Population aging is an inevitable demographic reality that is associated with improvements in the health and medical care system. With longevity and declining fertility rates, the population of older persons is growing faster than the general population globally. The elderly population is more prone to various kinds of morbidity due to decreasing immunity and the risk of advancing age.Objective: To describe the morbidity pattern of the elderly in an urban area of Burla.Materials and methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was carried out for one year from 1st July 2021 to 30th June 2022. A total of 385 individuals aged 60 years and above residing in Burla were included in the study. Patient-wise data collection was done by a predesigned, pretested structured questionnaire. The chi-square test for categorical variables at a 95% confidence interval and significance set at 0.05 were used as measures of association in the analysis of factors associated with morbidity.Result: The most common health problem involved was musculoskeletal (68.6%), followed by cardiovascular (57.1%), eye (47.3%), endocrine (25.2%), respiratory (21.3%), digestive (20.5%), skin (16.1%), ear (15.3%), general and unspecified health problems (30.7%), and urological (5.5%) and 4.5% had neurological problems.Conclusion: Elderly population has a high frequency of numerous morbidities, so it is important to educate the elderly population about prevalent age-related health issues as well as preventive care.

BackgroundThe National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 of India recommends strengthening the delivery system of Primary Health Care through the establishment of Health & Wellness Centres (HWC) as the platform to deliver comprehensive primary health care services. HWCs are being set up as an upgraded version of existing subcenters, primary health care centers, and urban primary health centers. This study was conducted to evaluate the functioning of health and wellness centers in Western Odisha. ObjectiveTo assess the availability of human resources, health care services, drug availability, lab services, and IT services at the health and wellness centers of Western Odisha. MethodsOut of 10 districts of Western Odisha, two districts (Sambalpur and Deogarh) were selected for convenience, and a cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2021 to December 2022. All 43 health and wellness centers (35 rural primary health centers (PHCs) and eight urban PHCs) of the above two districts were included in the study. All relevant data were collected using a predesigned, pretested, and semi-structured questionnaire. ResultsThe study showed that all 43 HWCs had good availability of pharmacists and lab technicians but less availability of medical officers, AYUSH medical officers, and staff nurses. Maternal and childhood services, family planning, and non-communicable disease (NCD) services were conducted regularly in all health and wellness centers, but basic oral health services and palliative care services were inadequate. All laboratory services like blood grouping, differential count/total leucocyte count, rapid test for pregnancy, urine albumin, urine routine examination/microscopic examination along with culture/sensitivity and water quality testing were done at urban PHC HWCs, whereas these lab services were less available at rural PHC HWCs. Drug groups like antipyretics, antihistaminic, antifungal, antihypertensive, oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA), antispasmodics, and antiseptic ointments were adequately available (>80%) at all urban and rural PHC HWCs. For IT support, appliances like desktops, internet facilities, and telephone facilities were found to be present at all HWCs. Teleconsultation services were found to be available at 88% of urban PHC HWCs and 60% of rural PHC HWCs. ConclusionThe study showed that infrastructure, human resources, and 12 service packages of health care and drugs should be addressed on a priority basis to achieve desired goals as envisaged by Ayushman Bharat to achieve the full potential of the health and wellness centers.