Elderly People In India

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Elderly people are considered as one of the greatest assets of a family in India. Most of them become grandparents by the age of 60.1 A recent worldwide survey has found that on an average, elderly people are as happy and mentally healthy as compared to a 20 year old, around the world provided they are in fairly good health.2 Ageing can be defined as the gradual decline of the body’s ability to respond to its environment. It occurs over time and affects an individual’s quality of life, leading to dependency as a result of accompanying disability and loss of physical, cognitive, or social function.4 In India the number of people above the age of 60 is rapidly growing. India being the second most populated country in the world, with 76.6 million…show more content…
around 99.87 million of India’s population. This suggests that there will be a rapid increase in the elderly population to 125 million by 2016 and 180 million by 2026 and by 2050 almost half of the population in India will comprise of elderly people.9 DEFINITION OF ELDERLY (GERIATRIC) By convention, elderly is defined as being 60 years of age or older. A group of persons with presence of frequent multiple pathology and the atypical way in which illness can present with confusion, falls, and loss of mobility in day-to-day functioning.6 The senior citizen or elderly are defined as a person who is of age 60 years or above according to the ‘National Policy on Older persons’ which was adopted by the Government of India in 1999.8 CLASSIFICATION OF ELDERLY7 This arose because the objectives of patient care change with advancing age. Three groups have been identified: Young-old: comprises of population between 65 to 75 years of age.. They are similar to middle-aged patients. They have minimal level of disability. Middle-old: comprises of population between 75 to 85 years of age. They exhibit the occurrence of chronic diseases. Old- old: comprises of populations older than 85 years of…show more content…
Elderly people generally sit for longer periods of time than do younger people. This increase in sitting time can cause an older person to have tightness in many of the body’s flexor muscles. These flexor muscles, when put into a shortened position for long periods of time, may more easily develop the previously mentioned collagenous adhesions. The hip and knee flexor muscles are commonly tight in an older person.23 Decreased flexibility occurs along any muscle that is put in its shortened state for a long period of time. The intervention for this is simply to break up the periods during which the muscles are in its shortened state. Older people need to be encouraged to stand up, walk around, lift their arms, rotate their hips, and turn and straighten their legs a minimum of three times per

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