Health Status of Geriatric Population of a Metropolitan City with their inclination towards Indigenous Medicine System
Abstract
Geriatric population is increasing as life expectancy is increasing. This population is susceptible for many health problems which have a significant impact on their quality of life. So this cross-sectional study was carried out from September 2009 to August 2010 on 1620 elderly residing in Municipal corporation area of Jaipur city with the aim to study the health status of geriatric population and their inclination towards Indigenous medicine system. Study population consist of 1620 elderly with M:F ratio 0.95. Mean age of elderly was 66.08 years with slight female predominance i.e. 1048 females for 1000 males in Jaipur city. Only 285 (17.59%) elderly who were not having and type of morbidity otherwise a sizable count i.e. 573 (35.36%) were having even 4 or more type of co morbidity. Commonest reported morbidity in present study was Psychiatric morbidity (54.32%) followed by Musculo-Skeletal problems, Cataract, Hypertension, Dental problems etc. About one third were having 2 or more episodes of acute illness episodes in last month. Although 805 (49.69%) were not having any limiting condition in last one year but 382 (23.58%) were hospitalized, 171 (10.56%) got some domestic accidents, 139 (8.59%) had some surgery and 123 (7.59%) had fractures in last one year. It was also found that 53.08% of elderly were able to perform their daily activity without difficulty and only 5.3% of elderly required help for daily activity. In daily activity of life of these elderly face highest difficulty in ADL /required help in use of stair followed by mobility, bowel/bladder activity and nails manicure. Majority (1349 i.e. 82.77%) of elderly followed Allopathy but others were following other type of Indigenous system of medicine. Among males were next to majority were following Homeopathy whereas in females Ayurveda. Among Ayurveda followers females predominate over males (10.49% v/s 7.33%).
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Introduction
Universal effect of aging is gradual loss of functions of cell of practically all tissues and organs leading to various type of morbidity and disabilities. Sir James Sterling had said that although you cannot heal old age but you can extend it.
There is worldwide trend of increasing geriatric population (> 60 years) which is elicit with the fact that 8.6% of 1980 has increased to 10.8% of total world population in 2010.1 This “demographic time bomb” is nearing explosion in developed nations. Asia, including India, is not far behind.1
Conclusion
Mean age of elderly was 66.08 years with slight female predominance i.e. 1048 females for 1000 males in Jaipur city. Only 17.59% elderly who were not having and type of morbidity otherwise a sizable count were having even 4 or more type of co morbidity. Commonest reported morbidity in present study was Psychiatric morbidity followed by Musculo-Skeletal problems, Cataract, Hypertension, Dental problems etc. About one third were having 2 or more episodes of acute illness episodes in last month. Although 49.69% were not having any limiting condition in last one year but 23.58% were hospitalized, 10.56% got some domestic accidents, 8.59% had some surgery and 7.59% had fractures in last one year. And 53.08% of elderly were able to perform their daily activity without difficulty only 5.3% of elderly required help for daily activity. In daily activity of life of these elderly face highest difficulty in ADL /required help in use of stair followed by mobility, bowel/bladder activity and nails manicure.
Although majority (82.77%) of elderly followed Allopathy but others were following other type of Indigenous system of medicine. Among males were next to majority were following Homeopathy whereas in females Ayurveda. Among Ayurveda followers females predominate over males.