ABSTRACT: Evaluation of morbidity profile among elderly people will help in the application of intervention to improve the health status of elderly. Communicable diseases do not show a fixed pattern of change with the age of man. However,non-communicable diseases like hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus ,musculoskeletal disorders,refractive errors, etc and their related complications become more prevalent in the elderly. Research showed that average number of morbidities per person was 2.77 among the elderly people of rural India. Elderly people are suffering from various physical,mental ,social and economical problems.It is essential to havegeriatric units with specialized professionals in the health care centres. Regular health check-up camps should be organized at old age homes. Insurance scheme should be implemented. Health problems of elderly should be tackled with psycho-social intervention. The present study was done to review the literature on geriatric morbidity. KEY WORDS: morbidity, geriatrics, review

1. Invention Journal of Research Technology in Engineering & Management (IJRTEM) ISSN: 2455-3689
www.ijrtem.com ǁ Volume 1 ǁ Issue 9 ǁ
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Review Article on Geriatric Morbidity
Dr. Uzma Eram
Assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine,J.N.M.C.H,A.M.U.,Aligarh
ABSTRACT: Evaluation of morbidity profile among elderly people will help in the application of intervention to improve the health
status of elderly. Communicable diseases do not show a fixed pattern of change with the age of man. However,non-communicable
diseases like hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus ,musculoskeletal disorders,refractive errors, etc and their related complications become
more prevalent in the elderly. Research showed that average number of morbidities per person was 2.77 among the elderly people of
rural India. Elderly people are suffering from various physical,mental ,social and economical problems.It is essential to
havegeriatric units with specialized professionals in the health care centres. Regular health check-up camps should be organized at
old age homes. Insurance scheme should be implemented. Health problems of elderly should be tackled with psycho-social
intervention. The present study was done to review the literature on geriatric morbidity.
KEY WORDS: morbidity, geriatrics, review
INTRODUCTION
Health status is an important factor that has a significant impact on the quality of life of an elderly population.Evaluation of morbidity
profile among elderly people will help in the application of intervention to improve the health status of elderly. Communicable
diseases do not show a fixedpattern of change with the age of man. However,non-communicable diseases likeHypertension, Diabetes
Mellitus ,musculoskeletal disorders,refractiveerrors, etc and their related complicationsbecome more prevalent in the
elderly.Numerous studies have examined the distribution of multimorbidity among older persons in developed nations but the studies
are scanty of developing countries(11).Research showed that average number of morbidities per person was 2.77 among the elderly
people of rural India(12). Elderly people are suffering from various physical,mental ,social and economical problems.
The present study was done to review the literature on geriatric morbidity.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In a study (1),regarding personal habits,61% of the elderly group chewed tobacco,33.3% of males were smokers and 28.7% regularly
consumed alcohol. General health awareness regarding common causes of prevalent illness and their prevention (respiratory
infections, diarrhoea) was found only among 20.3% .Complaints of joint pains/joint stiffness was found in 43.4% , followed by dental
and chewing problems (45.3%). Visual problems due to cataract and refractive errors were seen in 68%..Hypertension was found in
25.9% and diabetes in8.3%. Gastrointestinal complaints/diarrhoea in 12%, dermatological in 9.4%, heart illnesses in 9% and
respiratory in 7.3%)were less common.Laboratory investigations on the studypopulation reveals only 47.5% of the subjects had
normalHaemoglobin (of over 12 gm%) whereas in theremaining (52.5%) anaemia was prevalent invarying severity. Elevated ESR was
found in (36.9%). Random blood sugar above 180 mgm% was observed in (12.8%). ECG readings of (32.4%)were interpreted as
abnormal indicative of cardiacvascular, rheumatological, muscular andrhytm abnormalities.
Another Study(2) shows that 70% elderly were suffering from one or other ophthalmic problems followed by 48% with hypertension
and 42% had psycho-social problems and in this case number of females was high (49%) and 36% were suffering from respiratory
diseases and the others were living with musculoskeletal, GIT, ENT and nervous system problems.In this study, total 42% elderly had
psycho-social problems in which 21.05% males and 27.3% females had the problems of loneliness, 15.8% males and 20% females
feltneglected/ignored by their kins. The leading cause of diminished vision in developing countries is cataract, which was found in this
study in 34.7% and 60% males and females respectively, followed by refractive errors in 24.7%. 36% elderly were found to have
respiratory diseases;6.3% males had chronic bronchitis and 11.5% had bronchial asthma. 14.6% elderly persons had musculoskeletal
problems in which 8.42% males and 17.3% females were suffering from arthritis of knee joints and 2.6% males and 2.7% females
were suffering from spondylitis.
Another cross-sectional study(3) reported that the major cause of morbidity was hypertension in 41.10% subjects which was equally
distributed among males and females.17.81% subjects were found to be diabetic of which 53.85% were males and 46.15% were
females.16.44% population was found to be suffering from some or the other kind of joint pain of which 41.67% were males and
58.33% were females.8.22% population was found to be suffering from asthma of which 83.33%were males and 16.7% were females.
Another study(4) reported the prevalence of morbidity in study population to be 87.4% and hypertension (52.8%) was the foremost
morbidity found in geriatric population.Prevalence of diabetes was found to be 32.3%.Association of sociodemographic determinants
with morbidity status was found statistically significant also in this study.Anemia, osteoarthritis, cataract, urinary problems, skin
diseases, psychiatric problems, and constipation predominantly affect the women population whereas hypertension, ischemic diseases,

2. Review Article on Geriatric Morbidity
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diabetes, hearing impairment, blindness, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) were more common among men.
Geriatric population residing in nuclear family had more chances to get multiple morbidities (78.4%)in comparison to persons with
joint family (41.4%). Overall,most of the population (55.7%) had multiple morbidities with 31.7% geriatrics having single morbidities
and only 12.6%with no morbidity.
A study in Karnataka(5) reported that the commonest morbidity among study population was psychosocial problems i.e.
37.30%.The next commonest morbidities were cataract in 35.40%, hearing impairment in 22.43% and followed by cardiovascular
problems in 17.56% of study population. Cardiovascular problems morbidity was more (20%) in urban are as compared rural area
(15.14%). Musculoskeletal morbidity(9.19%), respiratory morbidity (5.42%), cataract 40% and hearing impairment 24.86% were
more in rural area as compared to urban area. Miscellaneous morbidity includes diabetes, filariasis, typhoid, dental caries, hernia,
varicose veins, and hemi paralysis. The relation between age and cataract and also between age and hearing impairment was
statistically highly significant (p< 0.001). Psychosocial problems were more common in females (40.41%) compared to males
(34.25%). 10.05% females and 3.86% males had musculoskeletal problems which was statistically significant (p < 0.05). 19.33%
males had cardiovascular problems and 5.52% had GIT problems which were more when compared to females. 35.97% of females
had cataract and 23.28% had hearing impairment which were more in comparison with males.Cardiovascular diseases were 21.80%,
respiratory diseases were 4.51%, genitourinary (2.25%), cataract 36.09% hearing impairment 15.78% were more in upper
socioeconomic class i.e. class I, class II and class III. Psychosocial 40.60%, musculoskeletal 6.01 %and GIT problems 3% were more
in lower socioeconomic classes.
In a study in Uttar Pradesh(6),vision abnormality was detected more commonly as compared to hearing impairment.As much as
62% of the hospital geriatric attendees had either low vision or blindnesswhile 15% had hearing problem. Whilehypertension,
respiratory problems (chroniccough and others) and musculoskeletalsymptoms were more common among the studysubjects
altogether, discharge per vaginum wasthe commonest (41.4%) among gynecologicalmorbidities. Diabetes mellitus was
significantlycommoner among males while respiratory complaints,osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and low backache was more
common in females as comparedto males.
It was found in a study in southern India(7) that 63% of elderly were suffering from one or more eye problems.Most of the
morbidities are common among elderly people aged more than 75 years, female gender, respondent who lived alone. 44% of the
elderly were suffered from hypertension.Musculoskeletal disorders including arthritis, one of the commonest disorders affecting
elderly and the causative factors leading to them are poorly understood. This study found nearly one fourth (23.6%) of the elderly are
affected by these disorders and osteoarthritis ranked first among these disorders.
In a study in Karnataka(8),diseases of the eyes were most prevalent (51.7%)among all morbidity conditions and cataract (19.6%)
was reported most common among eye disorders.In the age group more than 75 years, in illiteratesand in unemployed eye diseases
were found to besignificantly high. Prevalence of endocrine, nutritional &metabolic diseases was 38.4%. Diabetes was seenin 13.9%
of the aged which was observed moreamong women and prevalence of anaemia was found to be 21.9% in thisstudyDiseases of
circulatory system were reported by 33.1% of the elderly. Among CVS disorders, prevalence of hypertension was observed
among29.3% which was seen more among elderlyfemales than males. Circulatory diseases werefound to be more significant in
persons of higherage group and persons having high blood pressure in this study. The overall prevalence of musculoskeletal
diseasesobserved was 30.2%. Among musculoskeletal diseases osteo-arthritis (15.4%) was found to behigher for females(16.9%) than
males (13%).Diseases of oral cavity werenoted in about 32.3% of the elderly. Dental carieswas reported by 23.7% of the male
respondentsagainst 7.8% of the female respondents. 10.8% prevalence of diseases of digestive systemwas observed. Constipation
wasthe major problem seen among study population. Other problems seen were gastritis, anorexia, indigestion and abdominal pain.
Skin disorders were seen in 6.8% of the studypopulation. Common diseases noted were eczema, scabies, psoriasis and allergic
reaction. Hearing impairment was noted in about 5% in this study which was equally distributedamong elderly men and women
Diseases of genitourinary system were reported in 4.3% and UTI wasreported by only female respondents. Diseases ofnervous system
were found to be only 3% in this study.
In another study(9),we found that61 %oftheelderly population (60 years and above) were mentally ill.Social-psychological
perspectives is the high rate of morbidity amongst the widowed persons .Stressful factors like isolation and low socioeconomic status
are closely associated with widowhood.We found that in our sample, 41.9% of the mentally ill persons were also physically ill.
In a study(10) in Rajasthan,17.67% respondents had no health problems while (82.33%) observed one or other health problems,the
most common being impaired vision, hypertension, insomnia, anaemia, gastrointestinal or tuberculosis. It is seen thatmost of the
respondents had more than one health problem. Except DM and TB, all health problems were found to be more common among
female. Nearly half of the female were suffering from insomnia and anaemia.Almost half of the respondents felt that old age had
affected their day-to-day life. Among these(27.33%) felt that age had partially affected their daily activities. (34.34%) of the people
interviewed felt neglected by their family members, while (48.33%) felt unhappy in life and (45.0%) felt they were a burden to the

3. Review Article on Geriatric Morbidity
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family. An unfavourable attitude was observed to be more among female than male. Regarding perception of elderly towards their
health (41.67%) told that they have minor illnesses against (40.66%) having serious illnesses, only (17.67%) felt, on the whole good,
females were more sufferers.
CONCLUSION
It is essential to havegeriatric units with specialized professionals in the health care centres. Regular health check-up camps should be
organized at old age homes. Insurance scheme should be implemented. Health problems of elderly should be tackled with psycho-
social intervention.There should be separate geriatric clinics in the government hospitals.The elderly should be encouraged for routine
check ups in the hospitals.Indigenous and allopathic doctors should be trained to manage geriatric cases.
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