Health Problems of the Urban Elderly in Siwan, Bihar, India

Abstract

Every elderly person faces health problems, especially chronic disease, because the human body becomes weaker and more vulnerable to disease. They face many physical and mental changes, such as weakness, difficulties in daily work, poor visibility, hearing problems, memory decline, depression, loneliness, and exclusion from society among others. They are more vulnerable to various communicable and non-communicable diseases due to old age. Moreover, the elderly residing in urban areas are more vulnerable because of noise, congestion, and pollution in the town. The urban elderly are generally engaged in less physical work compared with the rural elderly. Therefore, cases of high blood pressure and obesity are generally observed in elderly living in urban areas. The objective of the study is to determine various types of acute and chronic disease among elderly men and women living in urban areas and compare them with those of elderly living in rural areas. The data were collected through structured questionnaire in 2013. In total, 125 elderly living in Siwan town in the Bihar district and 125 elderly of living in the surrounding rural area were surveyed for the study. Statistical techniques include cross-tabulation and binary logistic regression for better understanding the research problem. It was found that high blood pressure, diabetes, eye, gastric, and heart disease are more common among elderly from urban areas, also multiple chronic diseases are very common among them. Family environment, family support, and literacy are the major determinants of chronic morbidity among elderly living in urban areas.