Health Status and Health Seeking Behaviour of Ruralelderly in Chamarajanagar District, Karnataka

Abstract

Ageing is a universal process and its affects every individual, family, community and society. In India the size of the elderly population is growing fast. The increase in life expectancy becomes burdenbecause of dependency, widowhood and ill health. Ageing is a time of multiple illness and general disability. Age-related disorders include life-threatening diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and infections, as well as certain chronic disabling conditions affecting vision, mobility, hearing, and cognition. The elderly lack basic needs that affect their health status and health seeking behavior. Therefore health status of the elders is supposed to be the major concern of a society. This study made an attempt to understand the health status and health seeking behaviour among the rural elderly in Chamarajanagar district in southern Karnataka. This study is based on primary data. Researcher was collected samples using questionnaire. Sample size of 480 was collected from the study area using multistage random sampling. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data through SPSS.