Prevalence of Non-Communicable Disease in Elderly and Its Evaluation in Home Based Care in Urban Population

Abstract

Background: Population ageing is one of humanity’s greatest triumphs; it also presents today's societies with one of the most significant challenges. Worldwide, the number of persons over 60 years is growing faster than any other age group. With a comparatively young population, India is still poised to become home to the second-largest number of older persons in the world for the first time in human history. Ageing is a universal process and it affects each human being in the world. It is a by-product of demographic transition, i.e., the change from high fertility and mortality rates to low fertility and mortality rates. This phenomenon is more evident in developed countries but recently it is increasing more rapidly in developing countries. Results: In our study the proportion in the age groups i.e.  (60-74 & >=85) females was higher than the males i.e. {(37.5% & 4%) vs (23.5% & 0.0%)}, whereas, in the age group 75-84, the males were higher in proportion than that of females i.e. {(25.5%) vs (9.5%)}, and this difference in proportions were statistically significant in Fisher exact test with p < 0.0001, at df=2. The proportion of IHD was found to be lower in females as compared to males i.e.  (6.9% vs 20.4%). Only 11.85% of the study population were procuring government supply medicines free of cost, whereas 63.7% bought their medicines from private medical stores.  24.45% of the study population had to buy some of their medicines as 50% did not get government supply medicines regularly. 69% of the study population had heard about Health Insurance Schemes (HIS), out of which less than half i.e (39.13%) were covered under any HIS. Out of the 54 study participants covered under HIS, 34 (62.97%) were under Private Health Insurance Schemes and 20 (37.03%) were under BSKY. No one was covered under NHPS, BKKY, or RSBY. Conclusion: The overall health status of the majority of females was found to be poor with the majority of them being illiterate, and also dependent on others financially more as compared to males. So, more focus should be given to the educational, and financial awareness of females. People should also be aware of different social security schemes and HIS to remove the financial burden on them due to health expenditures. Unhealthy lifestyles like smoked tobacco and alcohol addiction were found only in males, which made them more vulnerable to develop NCDs.