Health Profile of Elderly Residing in the Family Settings and in the Old Age Home: A Comparative Study

摘要

Background: India is in the state of demographic transition. Number of elderly people isever rising while question about there care is becoming complicated due to changing familystructure and emergence of old age homes is one of its byproduct.Aim: To study health profile of elderly residing in family settings and in old age homesMethodology: Study design: Observational cross-sectional study, Study area: Urban fieldpractice area of teaching tertiary care institute in Pune city, Study subjects: randomlyselected elderly individuals 60 years and above residing in the family settings in thecommunity and from one of the old age homes, Study tool: pre-designed, pre-testedquestionnaire, detailed clinical examination.Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics, Chi square test.Results: Total 100 elderly individuals participated in the study. 50 were residing in familysettings in the community and 50 were residing in the old age home. It was also observedthat married study subjects were residing in the family settings more often compared tostudy subjects who were either widow/widower, single or divorced and this difference wasstatistically significant (X2=28.415; p=0.001). Use of canes/walkers was more observed inthe study subjects residing in the Old age Home (X2=20.294; p=0.001). In other aspectsrelated to health profile no statistically significant difference was observed.Conclusion: There was no difference observed in the health profile of elderly residing infamily settings and in old age homes