Diabetes Mellitus and Associated Factors among the Elderly Living in the Old Age Homes of Davangere District: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Old age comes with lot of ailments & diseases. Diabetes and its Complications can cause economic & social burden to the elderly living in the old age homes. Caregivers in the old age homes have the responsibility to take care the health problems of the elderly. If diabetes is undetected or uncontrolled for many years, elderly can suffer from serious health problems Objectives: 1.To assess the magnitude of diabetes mellitus among the elderly living in the old age homes 2. To determine the factors associated with diabetes Mellitus. Methods: A Cross sectional study was conducted for a period of 6 months in the 7 old age homes (OAH) of Davangere district. Elderly aged 60 years and above residing in the old age homes were the study participants. A total of 105 elderly were subjected to Fasting blood sugar (FBS) estimation using glucometer. Elderly having FBS value above 126 mg/dl & if the elderly was taking treatment for diabetes then they were considered to be diabetic Results: Magnitude of diabetes mellitus among the elderly living in the old age homes was 15.2%. Majority were in the age group of 60 – 69 years accounting for 22% followed by 70 – 79 years age group 14% & none of the elderly in the age group of 80 – 89 years were having diabetes. Diabetes was more among females (18%) than males (11%). There was no statistically significant association between any of the socio demographic factors & diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: Magnitude of the diabetes mellitus decreased with the increasing age. Females were having higher proportion of diabetes than males. Emphasis needs to be given in addressing the health problems like diabetes among the elderly living in the institutions like old age homes, so that they can have a better quality of life.