The State of Physical, Recreational and Health Status of Senior Citizens in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study among the Residents of Old Home and Community Residents of Dhaka City

The increase of life expectancy of the population due to senior citizens is increasing in Bangladesh. So it is the right time to take essential step for their physical and mental wellbeing. So, for their welfare and wellbeing, it is needed to find out their health status. The study focuses on the comparison of the state of physical, recreational activities and health status of senior citizen living in old homes and community living in Dhaka city. A cross sectional observational study was conducted. The subjects were selected conveniently and conducted among 200 senior citizens residing at old home and 200 subjects from community living with family or alone. A well designed semi-structured standard questionnaire was used to collect required data from the study subjects. Mean age of the community and old home senior citizen was 62.16±2.19 years and 62.92±3.25 years respectively. More than half of the respondents were businessman among both community and old home dwellers. Over the last seven days about 8.5% senior citizen of community never walked outside home whereas it was quite double about16.0% in old home dwellers but huge variation were observed in the case of often walker. Over the last seven days more than half of the respondents took part in recreational activities. About 88% community senior citizen and 96% old home senior citizen visited hospital in last 6 months. Prevalence of hypertension was 80% among community residents and 68% in old home dwellers. Diabetes was 61% and 68% among community and old home respectively. COPD was higher among old home dwellers (65%) than the community residents (47%). Arthritis was found a serious problem among the study subjects. Nearly 85% community residents and 72% in old home dwellers have been suffering from arthritis. Government and Non-government organization can come forward for the senior citizen of the country along with to develop awareness about arthritis risk factors for senior citizen by public health intervention.

Keywords: Physical status, Recreational status, Health status, Senior citizen, Old home.