Psychiatric Morbidity Profile of Elderly residing in a Metropolitian City
Abstract
Elderly population is increasing due to demographic shift in favor of geriatric population. This age group 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 find out psychiatric morbidity profile of elderly population. Study population consist of 1620 elderly with M:F ratio 0.95. More than three fourth (82.4%) of elderly were found to have at least one medical problem. From these, majority (54.32%) of elderly have psychiatric problems. So this geriatric group requires more attention by policy makers.
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Introduction
Old age is a normal, inevitable, biological phenomenon. Studies of physical and psychological changes which are incidental to old age are called gerontological studies. Likewise, care of the aged is called clinical gerontology or geriatrics.1 In 1980, United Nations defined 60 years as the age of transition to the elderly segment of the population. 2
In India, proportion of persons above 60 years of age is 7.3% consisting 7% and 7.7 % male and respectively. As far as the urban and rural is concerned it was reported 6.9% in urban and 7.5% in rural areas. In urban areas 6.6% male and 7.3% female whereas in rural areas 7.1% male and 7.8 % females. 3,4 It is estimated 18.4% of the total population in India by the year 2025. 5 Social and economic conditions such as poverty, break up of joint families and poor services to the elderly pose a psychiatric threat to them. Emergence of nuclear families, increased cost of living, and change in priorities of a family has adversely affected the elderly in India. Psychiatric morbidity increases with age, is more prevalent in the geriatric (43.32%) than in the non-geriatric group (4.66%). 6
Conclusion
More than half of studied elderly were having either of various type of psychiatric morbidity. Among major psychiatric disorders depression was the commonest followed by sleep disorders, Anxiety etc. As these psychiatric morbidity affects adversely on quality of life and interns the physical health. So it should be taken care with preventive and control measures.