International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | August 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 8 Page 3418 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Jacob SR et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 Aug;5(8):3418-3422 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Hypertension and other morbidities among a rural geriatric population of North Kerala Sabitha Rose Jacob*, Suthanthira Kannan INTRODUCTION World population is ageing. It is both a great achievement and big challenge. Good quality health care facilities and improved standards of living led to increase in life expectancy. Population aging, which has been defined as progressive and generalized impairment of function leading to increased risk of age related diseases is a social challenge, especially in developing countries. In India, as per the census 2011, elderly population comprised 8.2% of the total population and Kerala having largest proportion of 12.6%. 1 Due to degenerative changes elderly suffer from different types of diseases mainly non communicable diseases. The simultaneous occurrence of two or more chronic medical conditions i.e. multi morbidity is the characteristic feature of old age can alter the course and outcome of each disease. This also affects care and may result in complex self-care needs. 2,3 Majority of Indian elderly suffer from more than one chronic condition and 5% have some disability at any ABSTRACT Background: Ageing is a universal phenomenon characterized by an increase in morbidity, multi morbidity and increased healthcare and social demands. An awareness of common morbidities is essential for planning the health care services for elder people. Objectives of the study were to identify reported morbidities and measure hypertension of a rural geriatric population. Methods: A community based cross sectional study and estimation of BP was done. Results: Study population included 403 elderly with majority (56.3%) in 60-70 age group and 66.5% females. Among them 38.7% has lost spouses and 4% were staying alone. Illiterate were 22.8% and 46.9% had no income. Any one type of chronic morbidity was reported by 79.7% (n=321) 95%CI (75.83, 83.63) of the population and it was higher among females (82.5%). More than one morbidity was reported by 44.4% of population. Reported morbidities were hypertension (35.7%) and diabetes (23%) similar in both genders, joint symptoms (19.4%) higher in females, breathlessness (9.6%), known ischemic heart disease (7.6% ) and cerebro vascular attacks (6.5%) cancer (1.1%) higher in males venous diseases (3%) and mental illness (1%). As per BMI 19.6% were undernourished and 18.8% were overweight. Hypertension was newly detected for 130 (32.7%) persons thus making total prevalence 68.4%.Half of known hyper tensives were on regular treatment. Physical disability was present for 31(7.6%) and severe visual disability for 14%. Conclusions: Morbidity is high among rural geriatric population, hypertension being commonest with half untreated and an equal proportion being undetected. There is urgent need for intensifying regular screening programmes among this group. Keywords: Geriatric population, Hypertension, Morbidity, Gender, Treatment Department of Community Medicine, Govt Medical College, Manjeri, Kerala, India Received: 03 May 2018 Revised: 04 June 2018 Accepted: 05 June 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. Sabitha Rose Jacob, E-mail: sabitha1020@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20183073