Abstract
Global ageing is one of the biggest challenges the world is facing currently. The ageing population is both a medical and a social problem. It makes a great demand on health services of a country. Hence studying geriatric population and its morbidity profile is essential for planning its health care services. Due to paucity of data on geriatric health from this part, this study was undertaken to assess the morbidity profile among elderly population. It was a Community based, cross sectional study conducted in Hajin Block, a rural field practice area of a tertiary care hospital for a period of one year. 500 geriatric subjects (≥ 60 years) were selected by random sampling technique. Study population comprised of 46.6% males and 53.4% females, 70.2% belonged to young-old age group, followed by 26.2% in old-old group and only 3.6%(18) belonged to very old group. 66.2% subjects were still married and 33.6% were widowed (maximum females).All the females in study population were illiterate. Prevalence of morbidity was as high as (92.8%). Females had higher morbidities. Diseases in order of magnitude were ocular (67%), Hypertension (55.2%), hearing impairment (21.6%), APD (18.2%), Arthritis (13.4%), COPD and bronchial asthma (11%). The data will enhance understanding the patterns of health problems among elderly population and will contribute to the application of appropriate intervention strategies.
Key words: Geriatric, Demographers, Hajin , Morbidity, cross sectional.
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Corresponding Author
Nighat Yasmeen
Department of Community Medicine, Govt. Medical College,
Srinagar Kashmir, India
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v3i11.01
