Nighat Yasmeen et al JMSCR Volume 03 Issue 11 November 2015 Page 8122 JMSCR Vol||3||Issue||11||Page 8122-8130||November 2015 Morbidity Profile of Geriatric Population in a Rural Field Practice Area of a Tertiary Care Institute in Kashmir Valley Authors Nighat Yasmeen 1 , Imtiyaz Ali 2 , Abdul Majid Ganai 3 , Nighat Bashir 4 , Irfa Naqshbandi 5 Corresponding Author Nighat Yasmeen Department of Community Medicine, Govt. Medical College, Srinagar Kashmir, India Email: nyasmeen10@gmail.com ABSTRACT Global ageing is one of the biggest challenges the world is facing currently. The ageing population is both a medical and a social problem. It makes a great demand on health services of a country. Hence studying geriatric population and its morbidity profile is essential for planning its health care services. Due to paucity of data on geriatric health from this part, this study was undertaken to assess the morbidity profile among elderly population. It was a Community based, cross sectional study conducted in Hajin Block, a rural field practice area of a tertiary care hospital for a period of one year. 500 geriatric subjects (≥ 60 years) were selected by random sampling technique. Study population comprised of 46.6% males and 53.4% females, 70.2% belonged to young-old age group, followed by 26.2% in old-old group and only 3.6%(18) belonged to very old group. 66.2% subjects were still married and 33.6% were widowed (maximum females).All the females in study population were illiterate. Prevalence of morbidity was as high as (92.8%). Females had higher morbidities. Diseases in order of magnitude were ocular (67%), Hypertension (55.2%), hearing impairment (21.6%), APD (18.2%), Arthritis (13.4%), COPD and bronchial asthma (11%). The data will enhance understanding the patterns of health problems among elderly population and will contribute to the application of appropriate intervention strategies. Key words: Geriatric, Demographers, Hajin , Morbidity, cross sectional. INTRODUCTION The elderly person is defined as a person who has completed 60 years or more [1] . Government of India adopted ‘National Policy on Older Persons’ in January, 1999. The policy also defines ‘senior citizen’ or ‘elderly’ as a person who is of age 60 years or above [2] . Demographers categorize the elderly in three groups: Young old (60-69 yrs age), Old-old (70-79 yrs age) and Oldest old (80 yrs and above) [3] . In India, the 2001 census has shown that the elderly population accounted for 77million while as in 1991 it was around 57 million. The proportion of elderly has risen from 6.58 percent in 1991 to 7.5 percent in 2001. The growth rate among different groups of the elderly namely 60 plus, 70 plus and 80 plus during the www.jmscr.igmpublication.org Impact Factor 3.79 ISSN (e)-2347-176x ISSN (p) 2455-0450 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v3i11.01