Morbidity profile and its determinants among the elderly residing in rural field practice area of Shirur, rural health training centre, Bagalkot-North Karnataka-a cross-sectional study

Introduction: “Old age is an incurable disease” as said by Seneca. As Sir James Sterling Ross commented, “You cannot heal old age. You protect it; you promote; you extend it”. Scientific advances have increased the life span of man. The life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 67.6 in men and 70.1 years in women in developing countries, increasing the number of old age people in the society. Aged elderly, have a number of health problems and the assessment of the problems is of utmost importance and the need of the hour. Materials and Methods: It was a cross sectional study done in field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, S.N. Medical college, Bagalkot for a duration of four months on 274 elderly participants. Data was collected using a predesigned pretested pro-forma. Morbidity pattern was assessed by clinical examination and appropriate assessment tools. Results: Majority were young old elderly, with very low levels of literacy, belonging to class IV socioeconomic class. 32.1% were unemployed, 43.4% were Below Poverty Line. Joint families were predominant among the study population i.e. 66.8%. Majority of the elderly i.e. 94.9% were living with their families. Generalized weakness, joint pain, loss of appetite were the predominant complaints beginning in the young old i.e. in 60-74years. Diabetes, Hypertension, Upper GI system morbidities, ophthalmic morbidities and Hearing impairment were very common in the old age group (75-89years). Conclusion: The young old elderly suffered from constitutional symptoms, and the old elderly suffered from non-communicable diseases.