Background: Morbidity pattern shows the burden of the disease and time trends, highlighting demographic differences in disease burden. It also demonstrates the extent and nature of the disease load in the community, and thus, assists in establishment of the priorities for monitoring and evaluating disease control activities, allocating the resources and monitoring the trends for the effect of intervention⁵.Hence, this study aims to determine the prevalence of common morbidities in the elderly age group.
Methods: This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted on the 318 elderly subjects in rural areas. Of 60 or above. Random sampling was done to select the villages. A house to house survey was conducted in every selected village, and eligible subjects were interviewed till the required sample size was reached. The study tools were a pre-tested, pre-validated questionnaire Variables included socio- -demographic factors such as age, sex, religion, marital status, education, occupation, type of family, family income, etc.
Results: Female preponderance was seen in the study subjects. The majorities of the subjects was between 60-70 and were suffering from either one or two morbidities. 70 % had a positive family history. There were behavioral risk factors (addiction/ habit) in 35% of the participants, and the most common problem was smoking. The most common problems were generalized muscular weakness (63%) followed by gastrointestinal (GI) problems. Around 5% of the study subjects suffered from diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
Conclusion: Regarding the socio-demographic characteristics, behavioral factors and morbidities, the present study is comparable to many other studies conducted in India. The burden of different diseases or the morbidity pattern is different in different parts of the country.