Morbidity pattern and its sociodemographic determinants among elderly population of Raichur district, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Context:India is an “aging nation” with 7.7% of its population being above 60 years of age. It has resulted in a rise of both physical and mental health morbidities.Aims:This study aimed to gather information regarding the morbidity pattern and its sociodemographic determinants among the elderly residing in the rural villages of Raichur, to understand the need for geriatric health-care facilities.Settings and Design:This community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in six rural villages of Raichur District, of which 230 elderly were selected randomly.Subjects and Methods:The data were collected using a questionnaire, clinical history, examination, and cross-checking of medical records.Statistical Analysis Used:Data were analyzed using Epi Info version-3.5.3.Results:The prevalence of morbidity was 91.7% with an average of 3/person. Females (58.9%) had more morbidities than men (41.1%). The 3 most common morbidities were orthopedic (50.5%), cataract (50.4%), and respiratory (31.3%). 26.6% suffered from gastrointestinal morbidities while 23.9% had dental problems. 20.9% had hypertension with equal prevalence among both sexes. Only 17.4% were diabetics with majority being women. Central nervous system morbidities were 14.2% while 9.6% suffered from hearing loss and varicose veins. 8.2% had genitourinary-urinary morbidities and incontinence (1.7%) was common among both sexes. Depression (71.1%) and dermatological morbidities (4.7%) were prevalent among women. Only 3.5% suffered from cardiac morbidity and 0.4% from cancer. Significant association was found between age and morbidity and also between socioeconomic class and morbidity pattern.Conclusions:Geriatric care should become an integral part of primary health care. Regular screening and Information, Education, and Communication activities need to be provided early in life for ensuring healthy aging.

Morbidity profile and its determinants among the elderly residing in rural field practice area of Shirur, rural health training centre, Bagalkot-North Karnataka-a cross-sectional study

“…This is found to be similar to George LS et al findings. 21 In current study, majority of the study population doesn't know about family history of some chronic diseases, whereas those having family history, diabetes was the commonest (5.83%), followed by asthma (5.74%), which was similar to Srinivas PJ 16 who found most common history of previous illness was hypertension 12% and diabetes mellitus 6% in both rural and urban areas. Present study showed that tobacco chewing (45.23%) as the commonest form of addiction, while (34.66%) are addicted to smoking.…”

“…Present study showed that tobacco chewing (45.23%) as the commonest form of addiction, while (34.66%) are addicted to smoking. George et al, 21 study showed that smoking tobacco in (31.2% ) as the commonest form of addiction, while (13.8%) use nonsmoke tobacco (chewable form such as khaini, gutkha etc.) and (12.7%) addicted to alcohol in their study.…”

Assessment of Psychological Distress among General Population during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Lockdown – An Indian Study

“…[24] In our study, it was seen that those older than 55 years had an increase in distress score post lockdown, though not statistically significant. Most of them are likely to be suffering from one or more medical morbidity [25] and it is known that the prognosis for such individuals if infected, is poorer. Fear of quarantine, hospitalization, intensive unit care, ventilator care, etc., would be responsible for their distress.…”

An assessment of functional limitations and its relation to morbidity pattern among the elderly residing in urban area, Kerala, India

“…Morbidities such as acid peptic diseases, constipation, Visual impairment, senile deafness, kidney disorder and arthritis were associated with functional limitations was found to be statistically significant but there was difference in a study conducted in North India by Joshi et al showed that elderly participants with higher morbidity had increasing disability. 13,14…”