Nutrition and Health Status of Elderly in Slums of West Delhi

Abstract

With the increasing population of elderly, globally as well as in India and elderly being more vulnerable to nutrition and health problems, the present study was carried out to assess the nutrition and health status of elderly population residing in slums of Kirti Nagar and Raghubir Nagar, West Delhi. A total of 165 households were covered and 212 elderly were registered for the study. While registering these elderly, their blood pressure was taken. After registering, 165 elderly agreed to provide their household details. They also agreed to provide information on their perception of health, morbidity pattern, addition pattern, food habits and hygiene practices. Dietary intake was also collected from 111 elderly. Around 100 elderly also agreed to give blood samples for assessment of haemoglobin, blood glucose, lipid profile, vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Equipments such as HPLC, ICPMS, Immulite 1000 and Autonalyzer were used for analysis of blood serum samples. Perception of health and quality of life is poor among elderly residing in these slums. Only one fourth (24.85%) of the elderly perceived their health as good, perception being poorer among female (42.68%) as compared to male (26.51%). Similarly, one fourth (24.25%) of them perceived their quality of life as either poor or very poor. Loneliness, depression and feeling of neglected by family respectively were reported by 36.97%, 42.42% and 44.24% elderly. Functional limitation is also common among elderly with more than half of the elderly having problem in vision (55.15%), walking (53.94%) and usual activities (16%). Joint pain was the most reported current morbidity (43.03%) followed by body pain (22.42%) and breathing problem (17.58%). Constipation was also reported by 11% of the elderly. Elderly residing in slums, being generally from poor socio economic and low education background with poor access to health care requires more health and social services. newline newline