Prevalence of Self-reported Morbidities, Functional Disabilities and Access to Supportive Aids among the Elderly of Urban Puducherry.

Background: Planning of healthcare services at the primary care level needs to account for common prevailing problems and disabilities among elderly in the community to improve their quality of life.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of self-reported morbidities and functional disabilities among the elderly and to find out predictors and barriers of health seeking behavior against functional disabilities.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in two areas from the urban field practice area of a tertiary care institute in Puducherry during January to February 2014. Elderly aged 60 years or more were eligible for the study. During the house-to-house survey, with pretested interview schedule information on socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported morbidities, functional disabilities (impairment of vision, hearing, chewing and walking), health seeking behaviour and use of supportive aids against functional disabilities were collected. Prevalence of each morbidity and disability was presented as percentages. Predictors of seeking treatment for disabilities were identified by multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Result: Of the total 402 elderly, 384 [95.5%] had reported at least one morbidity. Hypertension [58.2%], musculo-skeletal disorder [54.7%] and diabetes [37.1%] were the most frequently reported illnesses among the elderly. Disabilities related to vision [49.5%] and walking [92.7%] were commonly reported functional disabilities. Use of supportive aids was higher for vision impairment [41.7%] but less for other disabilities [3%]. Elderly aged more than 65 years, literate and living with spouse had significantly sought treatment for their vision impairment.

Conclusion: Seeking treatment for functional disabilities is poor among the elderly. Increasing access to supportive aids will facilitate their independent way of living.