DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i02.021

Pages: 407-410

The increase in the population size of aged above 60 years is great concern in the world since more people are living for long years and increase in the prevalence of the non-communicable diseases in this age group causing burden to the nation. So with objective of assessment of availability of the existing geriatric health services and felt needs of the geriatric population at community health center this study was undertaken. This was a cross sectional study carried out in Community Health Centre- Pinarayi, Kannur between 1st August 2015 to 31st August 2015. Those who aged 60 years and above were included in the study, sampling method used was convenient sampling. The data collected by interview method using pre-tested questionnaire. In results a total of 160 geriatric population was interviewed, 77 (48.1%) were males and 83 (51.9%) were females. The mean age was 70.79 (+6.67) years. The commonest morbidity reported were hypertension (53.8%), diabetes mellitus (46.3%), dyslipidemia (35%), arthritis (33.1%) and known coronary artery disease was 12%. The study shows that conclusion there was increasing burden of Non- communicable disease morbidity. The present study shown that there is a need to strengthen the existing geriatric health services at community level at the earliest in view of rapidly increasing greying population and high rate of non- communicable diseases among them to decrease the burden on themselves and also on health care.