The health seeking behaviour of elderly population in a poor-urban community of Karachi, Pakistan.
OBJECTIVE
To presents socio-demographic characteristics and health seeking behaviour of elderly and to determine frequency of Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension in elderly population of a poor peri-urban community in Karachi, Pakistan.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted, targeting population aged 65 or above. A total of 438 respondents were interviewed after taking informed consent, between November 2005 and December 2005. Frequencies and Chi square values were calculated for different variables using SPSS 13.0.


RESULTS
Total population surveyed comprised of 438 elderly, 158 (36%) women and 280 (63.9%) men. Mean age for the population was 71.44 +/- 7.74. A total of 238 (54.3%) elderly were found to be economically active. More than half (n = 269, 61.4%) of the elderly were found to be illiterate. Only 72 (16.4%) of the elderly population were Diabetic and 132 (30.1%) were Hypertensive. Common symptoms that prompted elderly of Azam Basti to seek health care were fever (61.2%), generalized body aches (43.4%) and cough (40.4%). Over half of the (n = 269, 61.4%) responders reported factors which deterred them from seeking health care, out of which 62% reported financial constraint as the commonest factor. Deterrence from seeking health care was associated with illiteracy (p = 0.001) and living alone (p = 0.06).


CONCLUSIONS
The elderly population of this peri-urban community has financial constraints in seeking health care. Hypertension was found to be more prevalent among women as compared to men, ratio being 1:2. Less number of people knew they were diabetics; this might be attributed to ignorance and non-availability of investigations and screening.
Ladha
Abdullah
A
Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS), The Aga Khan University Hospital/Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Khan
Romaisa Shamim
RS
Malik
Awais Amjad
AA
Khan
Sana Farooq
SF
Khan
Beenish
B
Khan
Irum Nawaz
IN
Samiullah
Kayani
Waleed Tallat
WT
Saleem
Sarah
S
D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011203:Poverty; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires