DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2014.v02i04.074

Pages: 1506-1513

The population of elderly is growing globally and so are the physical illness and cognitive impairment. This study was planned to assess the prevalence of cognitive impairment and pattern of physical morbidity and association between cognitive impairment and physical morbidity. The study was conducted in Gold-age old age home in Saroor nagar, Hyderabad in between Feb 2014-April-2014. The elderly subjects 50 were selected by simple random sampling technique and assessed on MMSE, MINI plus, GHQ, GDRS. The prevalence of cognitive impairment among inmates of old age home was found to be 38%. Cognitive impairment was associated with age (p value=0.024), female sex (p value=0.426), low socioeconomic status(p value=0.469), less education (p value=0.04), nuclear family (p value=0.06), widow, unmarried status (p value=0.627). Cognitive impairment was associated more with GDRS scores (p value=0.022), less with medical morbidities like diabetes (p value =0.40), hypertension (p value=0.236). Medical morbidities were more common among oldest old age group, female gender, urban domicile. Most common medical morbidity was hypertension (25%), diabetes (20%) and arthritis (15%). Finally, it can conclude that Geriatric clinics can improve the health and mental status of the elderly population by screening to detect the morbidities early and creating the awareness in them.