Chronic morbidity profile among elderly.

The most common health problems of the elderly are related to chronic disease as a result of increase in life expectancy. In India, sporadic data have been collected on different health problems of the elderly. While epidemiologic studies specifically targeted at the elderly population are sparce, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has carried out several studies on specific chronic disorders such as hearing impairment, blindness, cardiovascular diseases, cancer etc. The data from these studies covering the aged population have been utilised to provide a chronic morbidity profile of the elderly. Based upon the population estimates, the disease load in the Indian elderly population has been estimated. Hearing impairment is the most common morbidity, followed by visual impairment. The common risk factors associated with these chronic disease, are reported upon, and measures for intervention are suggested, wherever feasible. The paper does not cover common morbidities, such as locomotor, urinary and sleep disturbances, which have been reported in other surveys. The availability of population based data from India, and derives the disease burden due to chronic diseases in the elderly is emphasised. Such data can be used to generate the pattern of health problems in the elderly, for initiating appropriate intervention strategies and for fixing priorities for planning health care services amongst the elderly.