Open AccessGeriatric health: Need to make it an essential element of primary health care
Author(s) -
Sunil Agrawal,
Jayant Deo,
Atul Kumar Verma,
Atul Kotwal
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
indian journal of public health/indian journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.381
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 2229-7693
pISSN - 0019-557X
DOI - 10.4103/0019-557x.82540
Subject(s) - medicine , overweight , public health , diabetes mellitus , anemia , obesity , gerontology , quality of life (healthcare) , cross sectional study , health care , primary health care , population , physical therapy , pediatrics , family medicine , environmental health , nursing , pathology , economic growth , economics , endocrinology
Within the next few decades, we will see an extraordinary increase in the number of older people worldwide. The public health benefit of preventive medicine in old age comes from the compression of the time spent in dependency to a minimum. A community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the morbidity profile of the geriatric population in a rural area of Maharashtra. A total of 214 subjects, of age 60 years and above, were examined. Data were collected by structured interviews and clinical and laboratory examinations. Out of the total of 214 subjects, 190 were suffering from some or the other diseases and the major morbidities were visual (56%), musculoskeletal (38.3%), respiratory (32.7%), and hypertension (28%). Anemia was present in 62.6%, 5.61% had Diabetes Mellitus and 22.5% were found to be overweight. The average morbidity load was 2.61. The rising morbidities clearly showed that a regular, complete health checkup of the elderly should be embedded in the essential elements of the Primary Health Care. This would reduce the morbidity, improve the quality of life, and facilitate 'Active Aging'.