Prevalence of anemia among elderly persons residing in old age homes in national capital territory, Delhi, India

Background: Anemia is a common morbidity in elderly persons (aged 60 years or above). In India, in recent years, the number of old age homes (OAHs) and the residents living in them has increased significantly. Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of anemia among elderly persons living in OAHs. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among individuals living in OAH in Delhi, India. Using combination of location and type of OAH, 28 clusters of almost equal sizes were created, of which 13 clusters were randomly selected, and all elderly persons living therein were selected for the study. Sociodemographic profile was recorded using a self-designed, semistructured interview schedule. Hemoglobin (Hb) was estimated using HemoCue Hb 201+ system. Binary Logistic regression was used to assess the socioeconomic determinants of anemia. Results: The study included 334 elderly persons, with a mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 75.2 (8.6) years and mean (SD) Hb of 11.6 (1.7) g/dL. The mean (SD) Hb in men was 12.1 (1.7) g/dL compared to 10.9 (1.5) g/dL among women (P < 0.0001). The overall prevalence of anemia was 68.7% (95% confidence interval 63.9, 73.4); among those who were anemic, 47.4% had mild anemia, 47.0% had moderate anemia, and 5.6% had severe anemia. The prevalence of mild anemia was 45% in men compared to 24.8% in women. The odds of anemia among ?80 years was 2 times that among 60–69 years (P < 0.029). Conclusions: The prevalence of anemia among elderly persons in OAHs is high in Delhi, India and increased with age.

Community ophthalmology in the Indian perspective.

Community ophthalmology is as important as practice of clinical ophthalmology. Community ophthalmology deals the part of ophthalmology which is meant for identifying common causes of ocular morbidity in different regions, assessing the needs of the population, selecting appropriate intervention strategies, planning education programmes and analysing the utilisation patterns. Community ophthalmology denotes the use of appropriate strategies to reduce the burden of eye diseases in the community and the consequences of ocular ill health, while striving to ensure the best possible ocular health status for a major proportion of the community. Community-based services do not mean that institutional care is being downgraded. Institutions will always be central to the success of community-directed programme. The rational for practising community ophthalmology has been pointed in the text portion.

Rapid assessment of cataract blindness in India.

28,055 persons aged 50 yrs+ from seven states in India were surveyed by a rapid assessment technique for cataract blindness. The prevalence of bilateral blindness (vision < 6/60 in the better eye) was 11.68 percent (95% C.I. 10.54-12.81). The age-gender adjusted blindness prevalence rate was 11.04 percent (95% C.I. 11.033-11.044). Age and occupational status were associated with blindness prevalence. Cataract was the commonest cause of low vision and blindness in this population. Respondents aged 60-69 years had a 2.74 times higher risk, while those aged 70 years+ had a 4.86 times higher risk of being blind, compared to those 50-59 years. Productively employed individuals had lowest blindness rates. Blindness rates were five times higher among respondents who were not working and two times higher among those engaged solely in household activities. The prevalence of cataract was 43.32 percent (95% C.I. 41.14-45.50) among those aged 50+ years. The prevalence increased with increasing age. Gender did not influence the prevalence of cataract in the present survey. Extrapolating from the present survey, it is estimated that 11.9 million blind people (vision < 6/60 in the better eye) in India are in urgent need of cataract surgery.

Variations in blood pressure of adolescents in relation to sex and social factors in a rural area of Haryana.

Adolescent students of a rural block were studied to find out variation in blood pressure in relation to sex, caste and socioeconomic status. Females had significantly higher mean values of blood pressure; both systolic and diastolic. There was significant variation in systolic blood pressure amongst adolescents of various socio- economic classes. Prevalence of systolic hypertension (95 percentile) was higher in adolescents of upper middle social class and diastolic hypertension in Prestige castes. It is suggested that screening for hypertension should be done at school leaving age and high risk adolescents should be advised about periodic check-up, proper diet, salt restrictions and exercise so that frank hypertension could be prevented in adulthood.

Use of reported immunisation performance data in monitoring UIP.

Health information system is not well developed in most parts of the country. We propose to use locally available data on immunization performance so as to make them more informative and useful for implementing and supervisory personnel. Reclassification of data according to estimated number of eligibles, monthly performance and age of children immunized can given impressions about coverage, sustainability of services and their quality. Similarly, area and institution-wise data can be used to identify places needing more attention. Active use of available data will help in improvement of vaccine coverage and control of target diseases.