Prevalence of Health Related Disability Among Community Dwelling Urban Elderly from Middle Socioeconomic Strata in Bangaluru, India (Report‪)‬

India is an ageing society (1) with the rate of growth of ageing population exceeding the growth of the general population (2). In India, it is estimated that the elderly in the age group 60 and above is expected to increase from 71 million in 2001 to 179 million in 2031 and in the case of those 70 yr and older, the projected increase is from 27 million in 2001 to 132 million in 2051 (3). Data available from India suggest that almost 50 per cent of the elderly suffer from chronic diseases with the prevalence of diseases increasing with rising age from 39 per cent in 60-64 yr to 55 per cent in those older than 70 yr (4). Cardiovascular diseases followed by respiratory diseases are the leading causes of death among the elderly in India (5). Hearing and visual impairments are two of the common causes of morbidity in the aged population (6,7). A National survey noted that 5 per cent of the elderly have difficulty in physical mobility with women (7%) experiencing more difficulty than men (4%) (4). Varying degrees of neuropsychiatric morbidity have been reported, the median range of psychiatric disorders being one out of three elders, with depression being the commonest disorder in the elderly (8). Among the elderly, the focus is not only on reducing disease related morbidity and mortality, but on promoting optimal health and ensuring disability-free years (9). In a population based study in a rural district from South India, authors using the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps, noted that visual disability was the single most important cause of preventable disability (56%) among the elderly aged above 60 yr with only one third of them using assistive devices (10). In another study from northern India, a significant proportion of the elderly surveyed had multiple health-related morbidities (42.5%) and a higher number of morbidities were associated with greater disability and psychological distress (11). In a clinic based study from a tertiary health care centre in Delhi, of the 1586 subjects aged 60 yr and above, 6.9 per cent had impairment in daily activities (12). A study from Assam showed that utilization of health services was very low among the rural elderly compared to the urban elderly (13).