STUDY TO ASSESS THE PREVALENCE OF ADDICTION IN ELDERLY AGE GROUP IN FIELD PRACTICE AREA OF MAHARISHI MARKANDESHWAR MEDICAL COLLEGE OF SOLAN DISTRICT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

Vikas Thakur*, Gurmeet Singh and Jai Gopal Vohra

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To assess the prevalence of addictions in elderly along with their health problems and level of satisfaction with behavior their families members. Methods: cross-sectional study in the rural and urban field practice area of dept. of community medicine of Maharish Markandeshwar Medical College and Hospital Kamarhati, Solan, H.P, India. Results: all families surveyed in urban set up were belonging to APL and in rural area 6% were belonging to BPL families, hence out of 100 families 12% were belonging to BPL families. There were 437 family members in all families so prevalence of elderly in study area is 22.2% shows that in urban area 57% of elderly were male and 43% were females & in rural set up 42% were elderly males 58% were elderly female whereas among entire surveyed area population 51% were elderly male and 49% were female. Habit of consumption of alcohol among elderly was 7% in urban elderly males and 21 in rural set up. Corresponding figures were 0 among elderly females in both set ups. In total 13% elderly were consuming alcohol. Cases of hypertension among elderly were 37% in urban and 23% in rural area comprising 30.9% hypertensive disorder among entire population surveyed. Corresponding figures for diabetes are 22%.7% and 15.4% for urban, rural and entire elderly population studied. In urban area 46 % were highly satisfied from behavior of their family members, 50% were satisfied and 4% were not satisfied. Whereas 19% in rural set up were highly satisfied and 81% were satisfied. Conclusions: Geriatric heath is one of the great matter of great concern, along with process of ageing this is period of instability of mental balance. Again life style of urban and rural set up has different impact on geriatric health.

Keywords: APL, BPL, Hypertensive, Geriatric.