Health status of elderly population in rural area of Varanasi district.

In order to assess the health problems of the elderly people and its relationship with advancement of age, a field based cross sectional study was carried out in two selected villages in the rural field practices area in Varanasi district. 88.8 % were found to suffer from one or more illness at the time of study. This resulted in the morbidity load of 1.93 illnesses per person. The morbidity was directly proportional to the age. The most common morbidity was arthritis with overall prevalence of 57.08% followed by cataract (48.33%), hypertension (11.25%). But the prevalence of old age related morbidities increased with advancing age (p<0.008). Compared to married people higher percentage of widow / widower (91.5%) suffered from old age related morbidities (p<0.01).