Prevalence of chronic morbidities and healthcare seeking behavior among urban community dwelling elderly population residing in Kalyani Municipality area of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Introduction: Demographic transition has resulted in higher proportion of elderly population in every community. The pattern of chronic morbidity along with healthcare seeking behavior and factors associated with it are important for implementation of national health policies targeted toward elderly population. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was done including 457 urban dwelling elderly population of Kalyani Municipality area of West Bengal. Sociodemographic details, profile of chronic morbidities, and healthcare seeking behavior for chronic morbidities were studied using a pretested semi structured questionnaire. Results: The average education and financial independence were high among study participants. The prevalence of chronic morbidities was 82.3% and hypertension was the most common morbidity in both male and female. Around half of the individuals with chronic morbidities (57.7%) sought healthcare advice at least once in last 6 months. Most of the study participants preferred private healthcare setup and allopathic system of medicine. Females have been found to have higher treatment seeking behavior than males in logistic regression. Conclusion: We found hypertension and diabetes were more prevalent in the study population. Higher financial independence and education among study participants might have influenced the healthcare seeking behavior, which was mainly from private setup. Implementation of national health policies for elderly has to be accelerated in acceptable ways to promote health among elderly.