Determinants Affecting Health and Nutrition Status Among The Slum Dwelling Elder

Abstract

Despite the demographic, epidemiologic and nutrition transition, the health of the elderly newline has been in a perplexed stage with limited exploration making it important to address this newline important component of the society. Previous research focused to a greater extent on the newline maternal and child nutrition and less emphasis has been laid to acknowledge another newline potential vulnerability the elderly . Factors like historical inequalities, socio-demographic newline factors, limited education, economic factors, nutrition habits/practices and health factors newline affect the overall health and well being of the elderly. The health and nutrition status and newline interplay of various factors among the slum dwelling elderly in Pune city, Maharashtra has newline not been explored entirely. newline The overall aim of this study is to assess the association of health and nutrition status among newline the urban slum dwelling elderly population and elicit the effect of various factors on the newline same. This study focuses on Yerwada ward and some of the selected communities (locality/ newline slums) from this ward. The descriptive study was carried out using the survey method on newline 431 elderly participant living in community dwelling using a purposive sampling method. newline Demographic, economic, social, physical (Activity of Daily Living (ADL)/ Instrumental newline Activity of Daily Living (IADL)), perceived health status and disease profile, food habits newline and practices, nutrition status (anthropometry and BMI classification) and dietary intake newline (24-hr dietary recall), food consumption score, food security and other issues of the elderly newline were assessed and cross tabulated on the basis of gender, elderly age group and nutritional newline status. The data was analysed using statistical tool like chi square in SPSS software version newline 20.0. newline Of the 431 participants based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Indian Council newline Medical Research (ICMR) classification about 37.7 percent of the sample belonged to newline normal category and the rest were malnourished in terms of undernutrition and newline overnutrition. About 6.6 percent were underweight, 32.8 percent were overweight, 17.3 newline percent were Class I obese, 4 and 1.6 percent were Class II and Class III obese respectively; newline which also highlights the high prevalence of elderly being overweight and obese. The causal newline factors triggering malnutrition among the elderly included education status, current income newline situation, caregiving, habits and practices and predisposing health conditions contributing toviii newline the burden of diseases. The health profile of the sample reported that 47.5 percent elderly newline had blood pressure, 54.5 percent osteoporosis, 18 percent diabetes mellitus, 17.6 percent newline arthritis, 16.2 percent weight loss and 15.4 percent asthma. Other causal factors included newline quality of sleep, physical activity, dental issues, number of meals/day and intake of non- newline vegeterian items. Lastly issues like insufficient money, poor housing, poor health and newline dependency of the elderly were other factors affecting the health and nutrition status. newline As this research is one of the first studies carried out in Yerwada slums in Pune city the newline conclusions provide a good understanding of the situation of the elderly in the slums. The newline high prevalence of malnutrition and factors affecting them indicate the importance of newline screening, monitoring, evaluation and taking immediate actions to tackle malnutrition newline among the elderly. This study thus can be as a guideline for policy makers at various levels newline of Government working on the elderly population. newline Key words: elderly, slum dwelling, determinants, perceived health status, nutrition status newline