Abstract
This study aimed to determine the prevalence of geriatric conditions and their association with disability in older community-dwelling adults in India. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 31,477 individuals (≥60 years) from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave 1 in 2017–2018. Geriatric conditions assessed included injurious falls, impaired cognition, underweight, dizziness, incontinence, impaired vision and impaired hearing. More than two in five participants (44.3%) had no geriatric condition, 32.7% had one, 15.9% two and 7.1% had three or more geriatric conditions; 26.9% were underweight, 14.5% dizziness, 13.7% had impaired vision, 9.6% impaired hearing, 9.3% impaired cognition, 8.2% major depressive disorder, 5.7% injurious falls, 4.0% incontinence, and 7.4% had Activity of Daily Living (ADL) dependencies. In logistic regression analysis, adjusted by sociodemographic factors and the number of chronic conditions, we found a higher number of geriatric conditions, and a higher number of chronic conditions were associated with ADL dependencies. In a model adjusted for sociodemographic factors and the type of chronic conditions, we found that a higher number of geriatric conditions and heart disease, stroke, and bone or joint disorder were positively associated with ADL dependencies. The odds of ADL dependencies increased with impaired cognition, impaired vision, impaired hearing, and major depressive disorder. Impaired cognition, incontinence, impaired vision and major depressive disorder were positively associated with dressing, bathing, eating, transferring, and toileting dependency. In addition, impaired hearing was associated with transferring and toileting dependency. More than half of older adults in India had at least one geriatric condition. The prevalence of geriatric conditions was as high as the prevalence of chronic conditions, which in some cases were associated with disability. Geriatric conditions should be included in health care management.
Highlights
The prevalence of geriatric conditions was as high as the prevalence of chronic conditions, which in some cases were associated with disability
Geriatric conditions should be included in health care management
The number of geriatric conditions differed by six sociodemographic indicators but not religion, by five of seven chronic conditions and Activity of Daily Living (ADL) dependencies
Summary
Geriatric conditions may include injurious falls, cognitive impairment, delirium, incontinence, hearing and visual impairment, and frailty [1], and may be better predictors of mortality than the number or presence of disease entities, but are frequently not taken care of in health care services or included in epidemiological research [2]. “India has 112 million elderly people with multiple physical, social, psychological, and economic problems with unmet needs in all domains of health, e.g., 40 million suffer from poor vision, 3.7 million suffer dementia, 1.6 million annual stroke cases, 1 in 3 suffer from arthritis, 1 in 3 has hypertension, 1 in 4 suffer from depression, 1 in 5 has diabetes, 1 in 5 has auditory problems, 1 in 10 falls and sustains a fracture” [6]
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