20 RESEARCH ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION International Indexed&Referred Research Journal,Sept,2012.ISSN-0975-3486,RNI-RAJBIL 2009/30097;VoL.IV*ISSUE-36 Introduction Life expectancy in India has gone up from 42 to 64 years since our independence. The demographers project that it will be about 70 years round about 2025. Currently about 107 million Indians are elderly, constituting about 8% of the total population. It has been projected to rise to 179 million in 2031 and 301 million in 2051. The increase in life span is associated with a variety of physiological problems that may affect dietary intakes and mobility of the elderly. The elderly are also subjected to a host of psychosocial, health and nutritional problems. The present study was undertaken to assess the morbidity pattern of the elderly residing in Nagpur city (India). Since females are very vulnerable, an attempt was also made to study gender wise morbidity status. Materials and Methods 105 elderly comprising of 45 females and 60 males were selected through stratified random sampling method from Nagpur city, India. A pretested structured questionnaire cum interview schedule was used for collecting information. For morbidity status, the elderly were asked questions related to sensory, oral health, gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular, respiratory, bone and other problems like diabetes and thyroid.The elderly were asked to produce the clinical reports of disease, if they are suffering from any.The data was statistically analyzed using Chi square test of independence (Garret and Woodworth (1969). Results And Discussion There were 105 elderly out of which 60 were male and 45 were female. The mean age of elderly male was found to be 69.43 5.78 years and that of elderly female was found to be 69.43 ± 4.60 years. 13.33 percent elderly were illiterate and majority (34.28%) elderly had their education up to high school. 58.09 % elderly Research Paper—Home Science September,2012 Morbidity Pattern in Elderly Males and Females of Nagpur City * Minakshi Kanfade **Rekha Sharma ** UGC-Academic Staff College, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur * P.G. Teaching Dept. of Home Sc., Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Nagpur A B S T R A C T The present investigation was undertaken to assess the nutritional status of the elderly residing in Nagpur city. 60 elderly males and 45 elderly family males were selected from Nagpur city. Results of the study revealed that 76.19%, 72.4% and 60% elderlies were suffering from hypertension, ophthalmic morbidity and musculoskeleton morbidity respectively. 43.80%, 42.84%, 36.19% and 33.33% elderly had problems of dry mouth, loss of appetite, digestion problems and diabetes respectively. No significant difference (p>0.05) was observed in male and female elderly with respect to the morbidity status. were staying in nuclear family whereas 41.90% in joint family. The average family size of elderly male was 4.48 ± 1.96 whereas that of female was 5 ± 2.69. The mean per capita income of elderly male was found to be Rs. 2272.53 ± 1672.77 whereas for elderly female it was found to be Rs. 1887.32 ± 874.20.. Morbidity Pattern of the Elderly The morbidity status of the elderly of the present study is shown in Table I. See Table Data presented in Table 1 shows that hypertension was reported by majority elderly (76.19 %). Similar results have been reported by Parray et al (2008), Kishor et al (2007) and Woo et al (2007). Ophthalmic morbidity (72.4) was the next most reported one and higher percentage was seen among the males (45.71). As compared to other studies (Katta et al, 2011; Parray et al., 2008) the ophthalmic morbidity was highest in the present study. 60.0% elderly were found to be suffering from the musculoskeletal problems. Arthritis and joint problems were found to be higher in females (36.19%) may be due to decreased hormonal levels. The higher levels of musculoskeleton morbidity in elderly females has also been reported by Anil et al (2006), Sami et al (2002) and Shrinivasan et al (2010). Results of the present study shows that there were 33.33 per cent elderly suffering from diabetes and were not following any diet control. 2.85% elderly males and 7.61% females had problem of thyroid gland. Two elderly males had cirrhosis of liver and one had neurological problem. However with respect to the morbidity status, chi square test (p>0.05) did not show any significant difference between males and females. The present study denotes a considerable rise in morbidity pattern of elderly as compared to