Bijush Difoesa, Ajit Kumar Dey
BACKGROUND
The age structure of the population in the developed countries has so evolved that the numbers of old people is continually on the increase. Worldwide by 2025, the number of elderly people is expected to rise more than 1.2 billion with about 840 million of these in low-income countries. The population of elderly in India is expected to increase to 173 million by 2026. By 2050; India will be home to one out of every six of the world’s older persons. Considering all these the present study was undertaken to analyse the morbidity profile of geriatric patients admitted in internal medicine department of a tertiary care hospital.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Hospital based cross sectional study of geriatric patients aged 60 years and above. The required sample size calculated was 384. Accordingly, 199 numbers male and 194 females were included in the study. The information were collected systemically in a predesigned format and data analysed in SPSS software package.
RESULTS
Majority 124 (31.55%) cases were in 60-64 years of age. The most common system involved was neurological (42.27%). Overall the prevalence of common morbidities were HTN (29.5%), COPD (22.14%), DM (9.9%), Chronic Kidney disease (8.9%), IHD (4.8%), chronic liver disease (3.8%), Tuberculosis (2.8%).
CONCLUSION
The present study has revealed that geriatric patients are suffering from different non communicable diseases (NCDs) with coexisting other morbidities that require urgent measures to provide specialized care to this vulnerable groups.
