Background: The growth rate of the older population is significantly higher than that of the total population and majority of elderly in India are staying in rural areas. Health problems of old people are related to social factors.
Objective: To study the social aspects of health of geriatric population living in rural area.
Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving community based survey in two rural areas of Mangalore, Karnataka, India. The systematic random sampling method was used and the house was considered as sampling unit. The participants were interviewed by using predesigned and pre tested semi-structured tool.
Statistical analysis: Categorical data analysis was done using Fishers exact test & McNemars chi square test. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05 (two sided).
Results: The mean age of all the participants was 67.8 ± 6.8 years. Among the participants 25% were illiterate, 42.2% were staying in joint families, and 26.7% were widows / widowers. As compared to widow/widowers , married elderly reported to be having significantly higher rate of both smoking and alcoholism ; as well as going for regular walk (p=0.0005). Individuals who had friends, who had a liking to travel and to visit relatives earlier, were shown to have significant reduction in those activities now in old age (p= 0.0005).
Conclusion: The morbidity increases with the age with associated social factors, more so in widowed people. There is a growing need of interventions to ensure the health of this vulnerable geriatric population and to create a policy to meet the care and needs of the disabled elderly.
Key words: Elderly, Social problem, Health variables, Decision making, Income source
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