Study of disability level of daily activity in geriatric population living in rural area of an Indian City

Abstract

Objective: At present geriatrics has not been fully established as a speciality in India and Rajasthan. The problems associated with the ageing of the population are that of absence of facilities of medical treatment and providing economic and social support. Hence, information on morbidity profile of the population is essential for planning its health care facilities. Therefore, the present study was undertaken on the morbidity pattern among geriatric population in the field practice area of RHTC, Achrol. Material and method: The present study is a community based cross-sectional study. Study population included all the elderly persons of 60 years and above age group, residing in the field practice area of RHTC Achrol. Result: This study showed that almost half of the elderly i.e. 47.7% had normal gait & stability and out of them majority i.e. 85.3% belonged to 60 to 64 years of age group, while the proportion of elderly having normal but slow and limited physical activity was found to increase significantly (p<0.05) with age i.e. from 14.8% & 0.0% respectively in age group 60 to 64 years to 42.8% and 57.1% respectively in >80 age group. Conclusion: It was found that higher proportion of females i.e. 53.6% than males i.e. 51.4% had gait disturbances (p>0.05).