National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 9│Issue 12│Dec 2018 Page 840 ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 Open Access Article www.njcmindia.org Assessment of the Morbidity Pattern of Persons Living At Old Age Homes of Ahmedabad City Sudip V Bhavsar 1 , Nirmika Patel 2 , Viral Dave 3 Financial Support: None declared Conflict of Interest: None declared Copy Right: The Journal retains the copyrights of this article. However, re- production is permissible with due acknowledgement of the source. How to cite this article: Bhavsar SV, Patel N, Dave V. Assess- ment of the Morbidity Pattern of Per- sons Living At Old Age Homes of Ah- medabad City. Natl J Community Med 2018; 9 (12): 840-845 Author’s Affiliation: 1 Assistant Professor, Community Med- icine, Dr M K Shah Medical college and Research centre, Ahmedabad; 2 Tutor, Community Medicine, GMERS Medical College- Sola, Ahmedabad; 3 Professor, Community Medicine, GCS Medical college, Hospital and Research centre, Ahmedabad Correspondence Dr. Nirmika Patel drnirmikapatel@yahoo.com Date of Submission: 26-07-18 Date of Acceptance: 08-12-18 Date of Publication: 31-12-18 ABSTRACT Introduction: Although old age is not a disease in itself; the elder- ly are vulnerable to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular illness, cancers, diabetes, musculoskeletal and mental illnesses leading to impairments and disabilities ultimately affecting the health related quality of life of the elderly and will rise burden on the health sys- tems of country. Main objectives of the research are to study the socio-demographic profile of as well as the physical and mental health problems amongst persons living at selected old age homes of Ahmedabad city. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among total 143 participants living at randomly selected (half of all 12) old age homes of Ahmedabad city. They were asked and assessed accord- ing to proforma for collection of information. Results: 46.2% participants had pallor.69.9% had osteoarthritis. 39.9% had difficulty in vision.29.4% were suffering from at least one respiratory problems.60.1% had hypertension. 20.3% were suf- fering from diabetes.49.7% were suffering from at least one GIT problem.25.2% had depression. Conclusion: Osteoarthritis was seen in 7 out of every 10 elderly & was higher in females compared to males. Other major problems were difficulty in hearing & vision, hypertension, constipation, acidity, diabetes in descending order. Keywords: old age home, morbidity, prevalence, Ahmedabad, as- sessment INTRODUCTION It’s a known fact that aging is a natural process. A roman philosopher Seneca said that “Old age is an incurable disease”, but more recently, Sir James Sterling Ross commented that one can’t heal old age. He can protect it, promote it and can extend it. 1 Due to combined effects of growing fertility and lowering mortality during the twentieth century, large and faster increases in elderly populations occurred as successively larger cohorts fell into old age. Furthermore, nowadays steep decline in fertil- ity is seen which raises the chances of increase in proportion of the elderly population in the future. 2 In 2010, an estimated 524 million people were aged 65 yrs or older – 8% of world’s population. By 2050, this number is expected to nearly triple to about 1.5 billion, representing 16% of world’s pop- ulation. 3 the population of age above 60 years has tripled in last 50 years in India and will increase in an unrestricted manner in upcoming days. In 2001, the proportion of older people was 7.7% which was expected to increase to 8.14% in 2011 and 8.94% in 2016. 4 Even though old age is not a disease itself but the elderly have higher chances of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, Non communica- ble diseases like cancers and diabetes as well as