ABSTRACT
Background: India has 8.6% elderly population which is going to increase to 12% by 2025. Government of India is providing for the elderly through various social security and welfare schemes as well as legislations. But various studies, mostly in rural areas have shown that the awareness regarding these schemes was poor and incomplete. Utilization of schemes by the beneficiaries was even poorer. Very few studies have assessed the same in urban areas. Aims & Objectives: To assess the awareness and utilization of geriatric welfare schemes and factors associated with them among urban elderly. Material & Methods: The study was conducted in urban field practice area of Dept of Community Medicine, SMS&R, Greater Noida. 402 elderly living in slums of Bhangel, Noida, were interviewed using semi structured questionnaire assuming 50% awareness levels in the urban area with 10% relative precision and 95% confidence interval. Results: Awareness regarding any one scheme was 31.6%, of whom only one fourth subjects knew about more than one scheme. Among those who knew about the schemes, only 40% were utilizing them. The awareness as well as utilization was found to be significantly associated with religion, caste and educational status of the subject. Conclusion: The study shows poor awareness and even poorer utilization of geriatric welfare schemes among elderly people of urban slums. Further studies are required for judging the influencing factors.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Morphometry ofear is a useful tool for the determination of height & other parameters of individual. The size of the pinna has been measured by some workers for designing hearing aids. No available literature on the study of correlation between the height of an individual and the size of pinna in different age and ethnic groups were available. In this study the height of the individual along with age and size of the pinna was measured in order to find out possible correlation in adult North Indian population. It was anticipated that a possible correlation could help in identification of different ethnic groups. Subjects and Methods: A study was conducted on 167 subjects including both males and females. The height of the individual was measured with the help of an anthropometric rod. The measurements related to total ear length & ear width and lobule length & width were taken with a digital Vernier Caliper&the height of the individual was measured using stadiometer& transparent graduated ruler. The pearson correlation were used to establish relationship. The data was analysed using SPSS version & p<0.05 was significant. Results: There was no difference between the size of the right and left pinna. The length of the pinna was 62.45±4.21 to 62.35±4.12mm and the width was 24.59±2.41 to 24.63±2.41mm. The length of the lobule varied between to 19.21±2.75 to 19.19±2.75mm and the lobule width was 20.14±2.54 to 20.10±2.56mm of both right and left pinna.In present study there was a significant correlation between rt ear length & width with the height of the individual.Similarly Rt lobule length, Lt lobule length & width also has significant correlation with height of individual. Conclusion: The present study reveals that the ear morphometry is an additional tool in prediction height from linear ear dimensions.