A Comparative Study of Morbidity Profile of Elderly Residing in Old Age Homes and in the Community of a Tier-II City in India
Keywords:
Old age home, elderly, morbidityAbstract
Introduction: Due to increasing life expectancy and large number of nuclear families, more and more elderly people are residing in old age homes (OAHs). The study compared the morbidity profile of the elderly living in the OAHs and those living in the commu- nity.
Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out among all the 88 elderly inmates (≥60 years) residing in all the six OAHs of Ra- jkot city and 180 elderly persons from the community. The differ- ence between the two groups was analyzed using Chi Square test, Odds ratio and Mann Whitney U test.
Results: As compared to 45% of the elderly in the community who considered themselves as ‘mostly healthy’, only 31.8% elderly of the OAHs had a similar self-perception (P=0.004). Majority of the known illnesses were more common among elderly of the OAHs. Forty eight elderly (54.5%) from OAHs and 75 (41.7%) elderly from community were taking some medication on a daily basis (P=0.046). Proportion taking more than one medicine was higher among elderly of OAHs than those in the community (20.4% vs. 9.4%). The regularity of taking medicines was more among elderly living in the community than those in the OAHs.
Conclusions: The health profile of the elderly living in the OAHs was poorer than those of the community.
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