Psychological Health and Its Determinants among Elderlies of Prayagraj

Abstract

Background: The definition of health by World Health Organization acknowledges mental wellbeing as one of the
important component of healthy life. At present around 17.13 million older adults are suffering from mental health
problems in India. Hence, in order to determine the current scenario of psychological health issues faced by people in
their old age and the factors associated with various problems in Prayagraj, this study was taken up.
Objective: To determine prevalence of psychological health Illness and their associated factors in elderly population.
Material and Method: This cross-sectional community based study was done on 483 elderly population of Prayagraj.
The data was collected using interview method by pretested structured questionaire. The psychological problems were
accessed using validated GHQ-H scale. The data was analysed on epi info version 7 and chi-square test was used at p
value < 0.05 significance.
Results: The prevalence of definitive Psychiatric morbidity among the elderly population was found at 13.7%. Gender,
marital status, education status and certain physical morbidities like oro-dental problems, hearing impairment and
respiratory problems were found to be significantly associated with psychological health in elderly age group.
Conclusions: psychological illness among the elderly population in the community is rather prevalent which goes
unnoticed and it was found to be significantly associated with Female gender, Living without spouse, and having some
physical morbidities.